✅ SOLVED Flat Button Dating

[Older The Better]

I was detecting near an old sandstone quarry in se Kansas not having a lot of luck so I moved across a draw and back up to the top of the bluffs and found these flat buttons mixed in with a few square nails, scrap iron, part of a skillet, what looks like the tip of a knife, and possibly a lock plate from a flintlock pistol or musket.
I think I found an old campsite but the dates I can find on the buttons and lock plate don't seem to line up with anything else I have found, the oldest date I can confirm is a head stamp "U.M.C. star" that I did find in the quarry that dates from 1880-90's. I try to keep my expectations tempered so I have a hard time believing that I may have buttons and gun parts from the early 1800's so I was wondering if anyone could narrow down the range for me.

if you cant make out the words it says "orange colour" separated by 3 dots, no makers mark that I can see and they are slightly larger than a nickel but smaller than a quarter

 

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[Older The Better]

on second thought



if anyone was curious about the other things I found in the same spot

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Brass 1-piece flatbuttons with a backmark written in indented lettering were manufactured from about 1810 to about 1840. We can narrow down the date of your dug-in-America flatbutton with a few historical facts. The spelling of the word "color" on your button is the British version, "colour". The War Of 1812 (US versus Britain) interrupted trade between the two countries, and the resulting postwar American patriotic distaste for British-made products minimized importation from Britain until about 10 years after the 1815 end of that war. By 1830, the American button-making industry had become capable of producing enough to supply the demand=level from American button-customers. So, the statistical odds favor your button being imported into the US sometime in the mid-1820s through late-1820s.

The flintlock lockplate you found in the same area can date from the 1700s into the 1830s. The advent of Percussion-Ignition firearms almost entirely stopped the manufacture of flintlocks after that time. Your lockplate appears to be for a pistol... it is too small to be for a musket.

 

[Older The Better]

Perfect thank you very much considering the mission several miles from here wasn't founded until 1847 the question becomes how these things ended up in what would be Osage country at the time. Thanks again for the reply

 

[fernald1]

One of my rules of dating.... absolutely NO flat buttons!!! I learned the hard way but seriously... looks about early to mid 18's