✅ SOLVED British 1812 Uniform Button? Treble Gilt

[ajaj]

Found this metal detecting near Lake Champlain, Chazy, NY. The button is 3/4" diameter with no markings on the front, and London Treble Gilt written on the reverse. The British had headquarters located about 1.5 miles north of the find site ~1814. I am not a button expert, but all searches reveal that this type of button was made up until 1830? All information appreciated; not for its value, but the history. Thanks.

aj

 

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[TheCannonballGuy]

Sorry, but no, not a "British military button" ...although the word London is the backmark shows it was made in England (and imported to the US before the American button-making industry became able to mass-produce them). These simple plain-front one-piece "flat buttons" were manufactured almost entirely for use on civilian clothing. However, it is known that at least a few Militia units and Military Schools did use them as uniform buttons. The version you found, which has a backmark with indented (not raised) lettering, dates from about 1810 through the end of the 1830s. That being said, during the civil war some "needy" Confederates used some of these leftover plain-faced 1-piece buttons as replacements for unavailable military buttons. The type you found gets dug literally all over the US, in vast quantities, at places where no military activity happened.

 

[ajaj]

Thank you for the quick reply and information!