Fun game... Date that flat button... And go!!!

[relicmagnet]

Has anyone seen a flat button like this? It's by far the biggest one I have found yet. Also possible date?

 

[Holly_squirrel]

Got a pic of the back of it?

 

[relicmagnet]

Got a pic of the back of it?

Here you go!

 

[gman17]

Classic colonial style. I would say mid to late 1700's .

 

[Indian Steve]

October 13 1739. I was there that day or so my body tells me.

 

[haraldmartin]

1724 ? Looks very old!

 

[Iron Patch]

The most common era of site to find them here seems about 1770s/80s.

 

[Tucson Dan]

I just dug a button yesterday that looks exactly like your pic. About the diameter of a penny with the loop still on the back. I was wondering the date of mine too. I found it in Harpers Ferry, WV (private property!)

 

[ChuckSC]

It's called a Tombac button. It's colonial. They used Arsnic to combine 2 metals, but they were learning that everyone who was making them were dying mysteriously. They stopped making them in the early 1800's

 

[relicmagnet]

It's called a Tombac button. It's colonial. They used Arsnic to combine 2 metals, but they were learning that everyone who was making them were dying mysteriously. They stopped making them in the early 1800's

So I shouldn't put it in my?

 

[relicmagnet]

So I shouldn't put it in my?

Mouth?

 

[ChuckSC]

Well.... You can I recon.

 

[ChuckSC]

The Oxbow Archaeologists have recovered two "tombac" buttons during the course of excavations. Tombac was a brass alloy with a high percentages of zinc and sometimes arsenic. This alloy can range from yellow to aluminum in color. It is often still shiny when excavated and was commonly used for buttons in the eighteenth century, particularly 1770-1800 (see Warren K. Tice, Uniform Buttons of the United States 1776-1865, page 2). These buttons are common on Revolutionary War period sites and have also been found at the Battle of Fallen Timbers battlefield in Ohio

 

[relicmagnet]

Wow!! Good info thanks, man I will research this thanks again!

 

[PaulTN]

October 13 1739. I was there that day or so my body tells me.

No I think it's from the 14th. Lol

 

[Iron Patch]

It's called a Tombac button. It's colonial. They used Arsnic to combine 2 metals, but they were learning that everyone who was making them were dying mysteriously. They stopped making them in the early 1800's

The button above is definitely not a tombac.

 

[Tucson Dan]

The button above is definitely not a tombac.

I have one just like it. What is it and what vintage do you think it is?

 

[Iron Patch]

I have one just like it. What is it and what vintage do you think it is?

Large Colonial era flat button and probably made of copper. I'd say the most popular time range for them was about 1760-1790.

 

[Tucson Dan]

Large Colonial era flat button and probably made of copper. I'd say the most popular time range for them was about 1760-1790.

Wow that's great. I found it on private property right up next to a CW battlefield in WV. What's it worth?

 

[ChuckSC]

Wow that's great. I found it on private property right up next to a CW battlefield in WV. What's it worth?

Def not copper. I'm still saying Tombac