Target wrote:
> It was found in a place where we have been finding early 1900 stuff.
> Is there a way to tell or verify authenticity?
Answering your question:
In my post I said "apparently brass." It has the look of a solid-cast button made of brass. In recent decades, only a comparative few buttons have been made of solid-cast brass, because of three reasons, all having to do with "cost of production":
1- Thin "stamped" sheetmetal ones are so much cheaper to manufacture. You just feed cheap sheetmetal into a stamping-machine and it spits out thousands of buttons in one hour. No need to make a bunch of casting-molds, especially "complicated" ones with an ornate emblem shape, no need to heat the brass to 2,000+ degrees to melt it for casting.
2- A cast button, being thick, uses significantly more of a metal than a thin sheetmetal version.
3- If you MUST make a solid-cast button, for a necessary reason like strength, it's cheaper to make it from an inexpensive metal, like "pot-metal" or aluminum, and anodize it with a brass color.
So, my answer to your question is:
If your button doesn't just look like solid-cast brass, but really is, instead of plastic, or anodized pot-metal/aluminum, it is much more likely to be a true antique than a modern imitation.
I know of one other clue for distinguishing genuine century-old (or older) solid-cast brass "pillar-shank" buttons from modern-era imitations. I'll tell you about that clue after I hear what metal yours is actually made of, and how you found it. I don't want to explain the clue in public, because the information could enable a faker to "fix" imitations to look more like an actual civil war era button. (No, when I say "faker" I'm not talking about anybody who posts in this forum... but please remember, the information posted at TreasureNet is viewable worldwide.)
