Lead button?

[mspence]

I've found 2 like this in CW camp/ skirmishes in VA about 30 miles apart. Looks like a lead disc and the reverse had a drop of lead on it with hole thru it to attach the thread I assume? Any ideas. I've used a eagle cuff button I found next to it for size reference.









Thanks

 

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[DCMatt]

A cuff button could be for decoration only (no stress on it) so it could be made of lead. Could it be pewter?

DCMatt

 

[mspence]

A cuff button could be for decoration only (no stress on it) so it could be made of lead. Could it be pewter?

DCMatt

Matt I'm not following you? I know what the eagle cuff is, its the crude lead made button I'm questioning



Here's another picture showing the other things I found there. Another eagle, back side of eagle, cut Indian head 1859 one cent.

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Mspence wrote:
> Looks like a lead disc and the reverse had a drop of lead on it with hole thru it to attach the thread I assume?

Mspence, you asked me (in another post) to take a look, and comment. It is definitely a button, a type which was manufactured from the late-1700s through early-1800s.

There are two possibilities:
The holes in the "drop of lead" on its back held a brass or copper or iron wire loop, which pulled out, causing your button to be lost from its owner's coat. Or, if the hole goes all the way through the "lead drop," it was made as a crude form of thread-loop.

 

[CRUSADER]

Its hard to tell from the photo, but I don't know of any buttons that had that combination of construction. I think it was a poor repair job.