45 minute hunt yields old button ID still needed

[coinman123]

I found this button today during a 45 minute hunt before it got dark. I have found many buttons in that area. This button looks pretty old. Any info would help.



The button back-mark has a laurel wreath that breaks for the word "Gilt", but only a few flecks of gilt are left.

How old is it, and other info would be great.



Note: Mods, Please move my post if needed.

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Cry Of The Eagle: History And Legends Of The Cherokee Indians And Their Buried Treasure - Grab it through Amazon!

[Steve in PA]

Looks like an 1820s-30s flat button. Can you read a back mark?

 

[coinman123]

Looks like an 1820s-30s flat button. Can you read a back mark?

It says "GILT" in a break around a laurel wreath. It has some gold gilt shining still on. And it is not completely flat (it curves in)

 

[HomeGuardDan]

Steve is correct, it is an 1830s-1840s civilian flat button.

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Coinman123, button collectors call your find a "plain front" brass 1-piece flatbutton. It was made for use on civilian coats & jackets, not military uniforms, because the Military preference was for buttons with an emblem on the front. (However, we know that a few "poor" Militia units used plain-front ones.)

Brass 1-piece flatbuttons with a raised-lettering backmark (like yours) date from approximately the 1790s through about 1840. The proof that those date to at least 1790 is in the button-book by Alphaeus H. Albert, which shows 1790s American Military brass 1-piece flatbuttons with a raised-lettering backmark.

Brass flatbuttons with indented lettering date a bit later, approximately 1810.

The majority of the ones we dig here in America were made in Britain and imported into the newly-independent US, because until about 1830 the infant American button-making industry could not produce nearly enough to keep up with demand from the clothing industry. They fell out of favor with the public in the 1830s, due to the advent of machinery which could mass-produce "ornate" 2-piece stamped-brass buttons cheaply.

Congratulations on finding a button which is approximately 200 years old.