✅ SOLVED Looking for some information on this button

TrpnBils · Jan 17, 2015

Found this button today at a site where I have found 90% of my Civil War lead (which I'll get back to in a minute). It's got the eagle on the front and the backmark is EXTRA/QUALITY. Can anybody shed some light on it? Is it military? If so, what specifically might it have been from? It is 3/4" in diameter. Also...any idea on how to preserve it? After I rinsed it it became very rough and it's harder to read the backmark now than it was when it came out of the ground. If it was a copper coin I'd put some olive oil on it, but I don't know if that would do anything for this. I'm assuming it's not worth anything, especially with the dent, so I'd just like it to not degrade to the point where you can't see what's on it.

I also found a musket ball today at the same site with a diameter of .622". I know 62 caliber muzzleloaders exist, but I'm wondering if anybody can tell me whether it is Civil War or Revolutionary War. At this site I've found a lot of 58 caliber 3-ringers, but I've also found colonial coinage here and the old tavern a half mile from where I was actually has an entry from Washington himself on the log book there so I know this site could have had both generations of troops come through. I'm assuming it's Civil War, but I know next to nothing about relic ammunition....

Kmercer87 · Jan 17, 2015

This is def a civil war era 2-piece button, common yankee button. Always nice to find though and a sure sign that there may be more relics around. Id guess the bullets are civil war as well. However if the tavern is colonial it is possible the musket ball may be from that period as well. You need to get the Record of American Uniform and Historical Buttons. Its by Alphaeus H. Albert

rick67 · Jan 17, 2015

Google Tice Book of Buttons.

TrpnBils · Jan 17, 2015

Thanks guys!

TheCannonballGuy · Jan 17, 2015

Here are more-detailed answers to the various questions you asked.

Your brass 2-piece button is the 1854-though-1874 version of US Army "general service" button for the uniform of Enlisted-men's ranks (private, corporal, sergeant). "General service" means it was used by all the branches of the army... artillerymen, cavalrymen, infantrymen, etc. Although the version you found was issued for 20 years, the statistical odds greatly favor yours having been made during the civil war years, when those buttons were mass-produced in the multimillions.

The Enlisted-men's version was simple brass, and the Officer version was goldplated. There is no need to do anything to "preserve" your brass button... unlike iron relics, excavated brass will remain in good condition without any preservation treatment.

Although your excavated civil war yankee Enlisted-men's "eagle button" is dented, it still has its brass wire loop on its back.... so, at a civil war relic show here in Virginia, it would retail for about $3.