Style help with not-quite-flat button?

[gtoast99]

Hey all. Dealing with a loss at the moment, and got out to clear my head with some more detector therapy. Didn't expect to find anything, and for the most part I was right.

I got this button though, which is a new one for me. It's not quite flat - curved out on the front and in on the back. Wavy style pattern on the front. The shank is missing on the back, and it's clearly got raised letters within a channel on the back - it's just too pitted to make them out. I can see an E and either an I or an L and an O... you get the idea. But no whole words. Couldn't get it to photograph or scan well, either. The font looks quite old though.

SO what I've got to go on then to date it is the style. Any ideas? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

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[duggap]

You'll get some more replies I am sure but I would guess without more info on the backmark a good date would be hard. Most likely 1850s and probably civilian.

 

[DevilDog812]

looks awful small and the spot on the back looks like a stud instead of a shank
cufflink? thats all i can contribute

 

[gtoast99]

Thanks! Yea, I was thinking civilian. And for my own purposes, I was going to say 1850's or earlier, though I suspect it may be earlier, I just don't know with the backmark so messed up. I just hadn't found any flat buttons in this style before, so I wasn't sure.

As far as it being a cufflink, I suppose it very well could be. It looks to me like the remains of the shank start to diverge (ie to make a loop), but just slightly. And I could be convinced that it's simply the way the stud sheared if it is a cufflink. So yet another question about this find! haha

Thanks!