My first colonial button!??

Wheatsweep · Dec 19, 2014

I found this at an old park. "standard teble gilt" on it. Any way to date or ID this

wstgo · Dec 19, 2014

Treble gilt button most likely late 1700's early 1800"s....nice

check out this site. http://www.buttoncrs.com/backmarks.html

coinman123 · Dec 19, 2014

Your button is a kind button favored the most during the 1790's-1830's, treble means triple in English spelling from that time which means "triple gilt" (gilt is a fancy word for gold plating), because most, if not almost all buttons from that time were made in England. Your button was completely gold gilded at one point, but most is gone now though will proper cleaning such as aluminum jelly some gold may be visible. In the 1840's two piece more "ornate" looking buttons with were cheaper to produce replaced the simple flat button. Very nice find, I almost never just find one of those buttons, there are normally many more, so go back and look coins come along with them! Anyways, nice button!

Coinman123,

TheCannonballGuy · Dec 19, 2014

Sorry, but your button is from later than the Colonial Era. It probably is British-made, but it dates from around 1810 into the 1830s, which is the time-period for brass 1-piece "flatbuttons" dug in America that have their backmark written in indented (not raised) lettering, as we see on yours).

Your button's backmark saying "TREBLE GILT" means triple goldplated, and "STANDARD" was one of the quality-ratings used in the British button-backmarking system. I should mention, the young American button-making industry initially copied the British quality-naming system, using terms such as fine and superfine.

In my first paragraph, I used bold-type to emphasize the importance of your button being dug in America for accurately time-dating it. By the early-1830s, American button-makers had finally become capable of inexpensively mass-producing brass 1-piece flatbuttons, so after that time there was no longer a need for American customers to pay the US Government's expensive Import Tariff (tax) on manufactured goods imported here from other countries.