Chicago area find

Lowbatts

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Elgin
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Fishers 1235X-8" CZ-20/21-8" F-70-11"DD GC1023
Found this Sunday and it's got my quizzing senses all perturbed. Looks like a pewter button, about 20 mm diameter and maybe 1-2 mm thick. It appears at first glance to be some kind of man at arms with a standard in one hand and a musket at his other side. A closer look seems that it may be a man with a standard and a woman kneeling beside him. Block letters along the bottom of the figure are either RNO or RNC.

Found at a homesite in a strata that also contained a beer bottle I can date to 1868-1872, though the bottle was a total crier. I got one PM that said it was likely Revolutionary War era from Mass. This area was originally settled by New Yorkers and Pennsylvanians back in the 1830's, for the most part after the Indian Boundary buyout in the early 1830's. While we have a few old graves of Rev War vets and War of 1812 vets out here in the hinterlands of Chicago, they are fairly scarce. But then of course it would only take one to drop an old button long ago in what would become the path of my coil last Sunday.

I just can't find any definitive source or attribution and those block letters would seem out of place from what I have seen of those older buttons. Thanks in advance for any ideas or directions!

RNO button.webpRNO button CU.webp
 

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Found this Sunday and it's got my quizzing senses all perturbed. Looks like a pewter button, about 20 mm diameter and maybe 1-2 mm thick. It appears at first glance to be some kind of man at arms with a standard in one hand and a musket at his other side. A closer look seems that it may be a man with a standard and a woman kneeling beside him. Block letters along the bottom of the figure are either RNO or RNC.

Found at a homesite in a strata that also contained a beer bottle I can date to 1868-1872, though the bottle was a total crier. I got one PM that said it was likely Revolutionary War era from Mass. This area was originally settled by New Yorkers and Pennsylvanians back in the 1830's, for the most part after the Indian Boundary buyout in the early 1830's. While we have a few old graves of Rev War vets and War of 1812 vets out here in the hinterlands of Chicago, they are fairly scarce. But then of course it would only take one to drop an old button long ago in what would become the path of my coil last Sunday.

I just can't find any definitive source or attribution and those block letters would seem out of place from what I have seen of those older buttons. Thanks in advance for any ideas or directions!

View attachment 642890View attachment 642891

Interesting! The letters appear to my eyes as BNO and it looks like the figure is holding a flag in his right hand.....kinda agree with the possibility of a women kneeling beside a man.....keep looking...this can't be the only one ever found....
 

Given my eyesight and inexperience with old pewter, yeah, could be BNO or BNC as well. Not sure if any of those combinations of letters have any remarkable history behind them. Thanks for looking!
 

Given my eyesight and inexperience with old pewter, yeah, could be BNO or BNC as well. Not sure if any of those combinations of letters have any remarkable history behind them. Thanks for looking!


Have you given an thought to the object that appears in front of the figure(s)? Looks like a tree stump or log of some sort. This one is interesting.....thanks for posting it.
 

Possibly change your thinking.? I get the idea that it is like an indian with the tribal spear in left hand and rifle in right hand As for the neeling woman I can see her but cant guess. BNO Blackhawk nation? ,I dont know just guessing. cool find good luck researching
 

You might post this in the what is it section. More traffic there.
 

The war of 1812 was pretty good in Chicago. They had that huge fort that the indians attacked. And i know there was i french fort in one of those cook county forest preserves.
 

whats the reverse look like any remanents of a shank to the back of the button
 

Why dont you press some play doh or similar putty into it for an impression? It may give you a clearer picture.
 

I enhanced the photo. Looks like a flag on the left side and a musket on the right.

ForumRunner_20120911_174753-enhanced.webp
 

Last edited:
Strange But Cool.......Still looking.............HH
 

Post it in the whats it forum, one of those guy's will know....................HH
 

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