Hi everyone, I found 4 Civil War buttons this weekend, 3 large and 1 small with an 'I' (think means 'infantry') on it. One was flaking, so I flaked all the 'stuff' off. Was this 'stuff' suppose to be taken off? I can see all details of the eagle with this 'stuff' removed, but not while it is on. To get the last bit off, I thumped it with my middle finger kind of hard. On the 5th or 6th hit, the button crushed. Seems these buttons are very brittle. Felt really bad for messing up something 134 years old! What is the best method for cleaning these buttons and keeping them from breaking like this? Are they all brittle like this. Are there a lot of the gold plated buttons out there? For those who don't know, these buttons ring very low on the Whites SL90 I.D. (around 20-35, and jump up to 70's when swing fast over center of target). Thanks for the help and good luck everyone. Bill