Oyster shell spot return and strange flat button

[diggerranger]

I had about two hours today and returned to the spot I found last week. Dug what appears to be a busted colonial cooking pot, 22 flat buttons, a smooth large copper, some iron, and picked up the one chip of pottery I saw.
Now for the question the other day I dug what I thought was a silver plated cap for a pistol snap and thought a hunter lost it. I dug another today and when I was cleaning the buttons I noticed one looked like the silver plated disc fit. I never heard of a flat button with a insert. None of the buttons had a back mark. Any ideas on this? Thanks.

 

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[Scrappy]

Two piece buttons existed long before the 19th century. Looks like you may have found an 18th century one, but it’s difficult to tell from your pics. The other day I found the back to one...this one had a hand drilled shank. Perhaps an early-mid 18th c.

If you could try to take better pics perhaps we could figure more out.

 

[diggerranger]

I

 

[Professor of Engineering]

Wow, that's a lot of buttons...congratulations!

 

[Scrappy]

Probably a two piece. They often had the front of a different material like pewter but I suppose silver is plausible. Maybe someone else knows more. Nice find

 

[Steve in PA]

Love digging flat buttons. You never know when one will be an early military. I can smell a piece of cut silver coming out of that place. Like Scrappy said, it looks like you have parts of early two piece buttons there. The backs seem to turn up more frequently than the fronts. Here are some examples of the backs:


Here is a back and front piece together. These buttons date back into the 1750s ore earlier.

 

[Scrappy]

Love digging flat buttons. You never know when one will be an early military. I can smell a piece of cut silver coming out of that place. Like Scrappy said, it looks like you have parts of early two piece buttons there. The backs seem to turn up more frequently than the fronts. Here are some examples of the backs:
View attachment 1557130

Here is a back and front piece together. These buttons date back into the 1750s ore earlier.
View attachment 1557131

Yep, brass and pewter are the ones I’ve seen. The only complete one I’ve ever found had a pewter front. And with all those buttons there must be some old silver in there

 

[Steve in PA]

Yep, brass and pewter are the ones I’ve seen. The only complete one I’ve ever found had a pewter front. And with all those buttons there must be some old silver in there

All the ones I find seem to be a dull tombac like alloy. Kind of like non dug pewter. I've never found a complete one.

 

[diggerranger]

Thank you for the replies