✅ SOLVED Early Button Experts Needed

[ga5150]

Found this last Saturday at a property that dates back to the late 1700's and also had some Civil War activity. It's almost the size of a penny. I think it was once round, but is almost squared now. It's non-magnetic and I thought maybe copper since it's a bit greenish.

I only took a photo of the back. It is marked: Double Quality and appears to say London at the edge, but it's rounded off. Below the word London and between Double and Quality is a emblem of a crown.

I would love to get a date range for this piece and gain some understanding of the different backmarks that I've seen like Double Quality, Superior Quality etc;

Thanks for any help!

 

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[ekeisler]

It's late 1700s-early 1800s. Great find!

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Ga5150 wrote:
> I would love to get a date range for this piece and gain some understanding of the
> different backmarks that I've seen like Double Quality, Superior Quality etc;

I see you've only made 4 posts, so let me begin by saying Welcome to TreasureNet... and welcome to its What-Is-It? forum, the best place on the internet to get CORRECT relic-identification information.

Here is what I wrote recently in reply to a question about a "plain front" brass 1-piece button:
The "plain front" brass 1-piece flatbutton in the photo was manufactured for use on civilian clothing. Ones with a raised-lettering backmark (like yours) date from approximately 1790 to the very-early-1840s, and ones with indented backmarking start about 1810.

The majority of the brass 1-piece flatbuttons we dig in the US were imported here from Britain, because until the mid-1820s the young US button-making industry was incapable of mass-producing them, falling far short of the demand-level from the Clothing-Manufacturers. Therefore, in the early-1800s, many millions of the plain-front brass 1-piece buttons were still being imported from the old "Mother Country," Britain.

The War-Of-1812 caused US consumers to dislike British-made products, so American button-makers sometimes included an American eagle in the button's backmark to signify that it was a US-made button. (British-made ones often have a British crown in the backmark.)

At that time, the word gilt in a button's backmark referred strictly to gold-plating... and the word plated meant silver-plating.

Also at that time, the British had established a set of "Quality" standards regarding the manufacture of metal buttons. Unfortunately, the standards were not strictly enforced, so button makers quickly went to playing fast-and-loose with the Quality ratings. I should mention, the American button manufacturers copied the British markings. So unless a backmark tells a British location (like London) or contains a British spelling (such as "colour" instead of color, a quality-rating in the backmark won't tell you whether the button is British-made or US-made. Some of the many examples of "Quality-Rating" in backmarks are:
Standard Quality
Extra Quality
Fine Quality
Superior Quality
Best Quality (note the "Best" on one of your buttons)
Superfine Quality
Gilt
Extra Gilt
Fine Gilt
Treble Gilt
"Orange Colour" (refers to the color of the goldplating)
Rich Orange
Plated
Treble Plated

Here's a very educational link which has info about the type of button you found:
http://www.daacs.org/wp-content/uploads/buttons.pdf

 

[ga5150]

Thank you Cannonballguy and ekeisler for the welcome and a most informative post. I had searched previous threads and did find the information about the quality ratings. I've also saved the link you provided to use as reference.

Thank you!