Nearly all of the buttons shown in the Albert book are in non-excavated (non-dug) condition. That is because when Alphaeus began assembling what would eventually become the first edition of his "Record of American Uniform and Historical Buttons" book, over 70 years ago, metal-detecting for US military relics was in its infancy. Detectorists had not yet found the many "scarcer" varieties of US Military buttons which would later show up, excavated from the battlefields and campsites of the RevWar, War-of-1812, and the civil war. As they gradually did show up, and come to Mr. Albert's attention, he began to include a few of the previously-unknown excavated specimens in the 1976 Supplement to his book. But Albert apparently decided not to try to show the many minor variations in CUFF-SIZE versions of US Military buttons. Your friend's find is the cuff-size version of button #OD-9 in the Albert book's "US Official & Diplomatic Service section." Being so much smaller, the button-maker decided to save space for the "Main" emblem by eliminating all of the encircling stars.
