✅ SOLVED Button

[sibbley]

Found this button this afternoon. No back mark. Not sure what it's made of, it won't stick to a magnet. It's dime size. Anyone ever come across one of these?


Thanks for looking...

 

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[TheCannonballGuy]

Your find is what button collectors call a "White-Tombac" 1-piece button. It dates from the late-1700s into the very-early 1800s. It has what collectors call a "spun back" because the back of the cast metal button was shaped on a lathe.

Ordinary Tombac is about 80-85% copper with the remainder being zinc, and its color is "dull-golden." White-Tombac is the same copper/zinc alloy but it has a "dull-silver" look because it contains 1% Arsenic. The Arsenic (which is a metal) may be why White-Tombac buttons typically come out of the ground showing almost no patina despite being buried for about 200 years.

To show the difference between regular Tombac and White-Tombac:
Canada made some 5-cent coins out of Tombac during World War 2. Here are some photos which show the color of untarnished regular Tombac. You can see that the Colonials liked Tombac buttons because the golden color differs from "yellow-brass," which is about 60-to-75% copper with the rest being zinc.

 

[sibbley]

Thank you. I had a feeling when I found it, but I've never seen one in person.