✅ SOLVED NY State Militia coat button...magnetic??

[funkman]

Went sifting again and came up with a NY State Militia coat button but it just feels funny... like made cheaply or something. I have a small magnet and it slightly sticks to the front and back (2 piece button). No markings on the back. Is it possibly a reproduction?

Here is the front and back.

Thanks

Funkman

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Button collectors call your New York State button's construction a "false 3-piece" or "false staff," because although it resembles a true 3-piece button it is actually a 2-piece. Your button has "self-shank" back, meaning, the back itself forms a tunnel for the thread to attach the button onto cloth. The version of self-shank back on your button was patented in the early-1900s. Another ID-helper here in the What-Is-It forum (whose name I cannot remember) posted that the false-3-piece NY State buttons were used by "State Officials" in the early-1900s.

 

[funkman]

Thanks CannonballGuy. I had a feeling it wasn't CW era but modeled after it. Just another button to add to the growing collection