WWI Rosette? Button?

[SkyPirate]

WWI Rosette? Button? SOLVED!

What could this be? I was hoping this was Civil War era because there was activity in the area where I found it. But I am guessing it is WWI. Maybe a horse rosette? a uniform button? Any help would be apreciated. Did people buy surplus horse tack back in the day and use it on the farm? I find WWI & II horse tack often around old homesites and wonder how it got there.

 

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[HutSiteDigger]

These two photos show a US Bridal Rosette Lead filled... This is one of those "maybe-maybe not" 1860s-70s rosettes. Some say yes, some say no. I don't know...

Yours appears to be later, I would say early 20th century and possibly late 19th century..

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Hutsitedigger is correct, it is a US Army horse-harness rosette, a hollow-backed version spefiic to the early 20th-Century. That version was 1-piece stamped brass with two or three "tabs" on its rim for attaching it to the leather. See photos below.

 

[SkyPirate]

Hutsitedigger is correct, it is a US Army horse-harness rosette, a hollow-backed version spefiic to the early 20th-Century. That version was 1-piece stamped brass with two or three "tabs" on its rim for attaching it to the leather. See photos below.

So your saying mine is the same that hutsitedigger pictured? And your picture is of the newer 20th century model? So what age would mine be? The area where it was found had Union
troops camping there towards the end of the war.

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

You did not find the version in Hutsitedigger's photos, which is about the size of a quarter and whose back is lead-filled. You found the hollow-backed version, which is a good bit larger than a quarter, and is strictly from the early 20th-Century.

About finding your strictly-20th-Century version where Union troops camped towards the end of the civil war:
A spot which an 1860s military commander views as a good campsite for troops is probably still viewed as a good campsite spot 50 years later. Here in Virginia, there are camp spots where relics from the Revolutionary War, Civil War, Spanish-American War, and World War One have been found -- all in the very same camp spot. In other words, favorable ground for a camp tends to get re-used by later generations.

I myself have dug unfired RevWar musketballs, civil war Minie-balls, a Span-Am war bullet, and World War 2 bullets in the same campsite. There is a Historical Marker nearby, which said "This monument is dedicated to Fredericksburg's soldiers in the war with Spain, who camped on this spot in 1898."

We also dig a surprising amount of late-1800s/early-20th-Century military insgnia and horsegear, on the very same ground where we find civil war relics.

 

[HutSiteDigger]

Great insight Cannonballguy!!

 

[SkyPirate]

You did not find the version in Hutsitedigger's photos, which is about the size of a quarter and whose back is lead-filled. You found the hollow-backed version, which is a good bit larger than a quarter, and is strictly from the early 20th-Century.

About finding your strictly-20th-Century version where Union troops camped towards the end of the civil war:
A spot which an 1860s military commander views as a good campsite for troops is probably still viewed as a good campsite spot 50 years later. Here in Virginia, there are camp spots where relics from the Revolutionary War, Civil War, Spanish-American War, and World War One have been found -- all in the very same camp spot. In other words, favorable ground for a camp tends to get re-used by later generations.

I myself have dug unfired RevWar musketballs, civil war Minie-balls, a Span-Am war bullet, and World War 2 bullets in the same campsite. There is a Historical Marker nearby, which said "This monument is dedicated to Fredericksburg's soldiers in the war with Spain, who camped on this spot in 1898."

We also dig a surprising amount of late-1800s/early-20th-Century military insgnia and horsegear, on the very same ground where we find civil war relics.

The one I found does not have the tabs. I think it was lead filled and the lead back is missing.
Why would WWI troops be camping in areas close to downtown Raleigh?

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

The tabs are broken off of your hollow-back rosette. It is definitely not the civil war era lead-back version.

Proof:
1- The size difference. The lead-back version is approximately the same diameter as a quarter. Your photo shows your rosette is much larger than a quarter.
2- The lead-back version is thin, only about the thickness of a nickel. Your photo shows your rosette is thicker/deeper than that.

Examine the photos below, to see additional proof with your own eyes. (I'll have to put the backview photos into a separate post from these frontview photos, to keep them from being intermingled with each other by TreasureNet's software.)

3- The lettering on your rosette has the EXACT SAME shape of lettering on the "tabbed" hollow-back rosette. Note that each "outside" curve on the letters U and S has short flat-spots. Also note the very tall vertical bar at the lower end of the S. Also note that the top right bar on the U touches the top of the S.
4- In the backview photos, there is a "chip" on the back's rim next to the middle of the letter S in your photo, and also in my photo, where one of the tabs broke off from the rim.

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Backview photos showing your US rosette and the hollowback "tabbed" version are the same thing. Look for the "chipped" spot on the left rim next to the middle of the letter S.

(There is also a small chipped spot on the rim at 1:00, near the top right of the letter U, where the rosette's third tab broke off.)

 

[SkyPirate]

Backview photos showing your US rosette and the hollowback "tabbed" version are the same thing. Look for the "chipped" spot on the left rim next to the middle of the letter S.

(There is also a small chipped spot on the rim at 1:00, near the top right of the letter U, where the rosette's third tab broke off.)

I see it now. Thanks for the detailed update. I am guessing that people used war surplus horse tack back in the day. I can't think of any other explanation.

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

SkyPirate wrote:
> I am guessing that people used war surplus horse tack back in the day. I can't think of any other explanation.

SkyPirate, that is one of the (correct) explanations. Another correct explanation is that as decades pass, city "development" and official City-Limits (border) lines expand outward, swallowing what used to be farmland and undeveloped forest. The Spanish-American War camp historical marker, on the bank of a large creek, which I mentioned in my previous post is located half-a-mile inside TODAY'S city-limits borderline of Fredericksburg.

We modernday folks tend to overlook the fact that before the 1950s, nearly all of the land (even in Eastern states) was still undeveloped "rural" land. Thus, the US Army had free reign to camp and do in-the-field-training practice (even doing live-ammo firing) in farmfields and woods which are now suburban housing and shopping malls.

For example, reliic-diggers are astounded to find exploded World War One artillery shell fuzes and frags well-inside the city-limits line of Hopewell VA. We tend to overlook the fact that 100 years ago, that land was empty woods and farmfields.