Another button - help to ID it please

[time4me]

I had another button in my finds box. I have no recollection of when or where I found this one (kicking myself for not keeping better records).

It is plain and flat on the front. The back says "DOUBLE GILT" and "No.2", with a dot - asterisk - dot between the DOUBLE GILT and the No. 2.

Any idea as to this button's age, and was it military issue?

[Montana Jim]

The "quality mark" of "* double gilt no. ? * cannot be attributed to any one button maker as this mark was used by both British and American button makers from the 1790s through the early 1800s sometime.

Someone with a button book may be able to help a little more.

No. 2 is probebly a button "size" or "type" number.

"Double gilt" means that "gold shall be equally spread upon their upper surface exclusively of their edges, in the portion of 10 grams to the surface of a circle 12 inches in diameter". [It's simply a statement that an amount of gilt was used... so it's better than just plain ole' gilted]

-- Source: The Book of English Trades, and Library of the Useful Arts. 1818

I hope this helps... your button is awesome!

Probebly civilian.