Year on this button.

[SCDigginWithAK]

In the last photo you can obviously see the difference. I Know I don't have a pic of the backs but ill take one later I'm not with them at the moment. Ill also get clearer photos. These WERE both found at Civil War Union camps. The first one I dug thinking yeah it's is an 1860s but now after digging the second I'm rethinking myself. Can anyone tell me a year frame? I'm thinking 1850s.

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

A History of Mining on the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska - Grab it through Amazon!

[SCDigginWithAK]

Oh and can somebody maybe put an eagle button designs through the years sorta thing for me to have for future reference?

 

[duggap]

I think your buttons are civil war or before. CBG has a lot better research material that most of us so maybe he will come along and give you better info. But it would not be unlikely for a soldier in the 1860s to be wearing a uniform with buttons made in the 1840s. And don't forget that a lot of troops entered on both sides wearing the old militia uniforms. Those could have all kinds of buttons including older made eagles. Don't worry about your buttons, but go back to that site and tear it up. It sure looks like a good one.

 

[SCDigginWithAK]

Thanks for your reply! I guess we will wait for CannonBallGuy to chime in. But I do believe it is from the 1840s-1850s range. A couple of state buttons have come out of here. I actually found this on an eroding beach at my site. The only thing that kept it from being in the ocean was a root of a tree!

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

SCDigginWithAK wrote:
> Can somebody maybe put an eagle button designs through the years sorta thing
> for me to have for future reference?

Okay, here's what you asked for, regarding US Army "eagle buttons" from the 1820s into the 20th-Century.

First, let me mention that what we diggers call a "plain" US Army eagle-button (the shield on the eagle's chest has no letter in it) did not exist until 1854. Before then, the shield had a letter.

Consult the photos below. The filename of the photo tells what is in it. You'll see that from the 1820s into the 1840s, the spread-winged eagle's stance was somewhat "twisted." The eagle's stance didn't become "symmetrical" until approximately the second half of the 1840s.

The last two (of four) photos are for any diggers here who don't already know. The three-buttons photo shows the 1854-to-1875 US Army eagle button on the right, the 1876-to-1902 eagle button in the middle, and the 1902-to-present eagle button on the left. The other photo is a closeup of the 1876-to-1902 version, which some collectors call the "chicken-eagle" button, because its eagle kinda looks more like a chicken than an eagle. Note that the shield on 1876-1902 version is high-raised, meaning, it projects outward from the eagle's chest, instead of being somewhat recessed or flat with the chest.

 

[SCDigginWithAK]

SCDigginWithAK wrote:
> Can somebody maybe put an eagle button designs through the years sorta thing
> for me to have for future reference?

Okay, here's what you want, regarding US Army "eagle buttons" from the 1820s through 1902.

First, let me mention that what we diggers call a "plain" US Army eagle-button (the shield on the eagle's chest has no letter in it) did not exist until 1854. Before then, the shield had a letter.

Consult the photos below. The filename of the photo tells what is in it. You'll see that from the 1820s into the 1840s, the spread-winged eagle's stance was somewhat "twisted." The eagle's stance didn't become "symmetrical" until approximately the second half of the 1840s.

The last two (of four) photos are for any diggers here who don't already know. The three-buttons photo shows the 1854-to-1875 US Army eagle button on the right, the 1876-to-1902 eagle button in the middle, and the 1902-to-present eagle button on the left. The other photo is a closeup of the 1876-to-1902 version, which some collectors call the "chicken-eagle" button, because its eagle kinda looks more like a chicken than an eagle. Note that the shield on 1876-1902 version is high-raised, meaning, it projects outward from the eagle's chest, instead of being somewhat recessed or flat with the chest.

Hmm I can't really tell what do y'all think?

 

[SCDigginWithAK]

It looks like a combination between the second and third

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Regarding the "plain-shield" eagle buttons in the photos you posted in this discussion-thread... that version did not exist until 1854. The plain-shield on yours is not high-raised, so your buttons are the 1854-to-1875 type.

 

[SCDigginWithAK]

Regarding the "plain-shield" eagle buttons in the photos you posted in this discussion-thread... that version did not exist until 1854. The plain-shield on yours is not high-raised, so your buttons are the 1854-to-1875 type.

Ok thank you. I say one is CW era and the other is late 1850s. Thanks so much