Button challenge!

[Digger_O'Dell]

Hi guys,
Found a very corroded round thing in lake off Chicago. Started cleaning it just to make sure it wasn't trash and with the first big chunk removed it exposed a strong gold color. Turns out its what looks to be a naval button. It was a 2 piece, but the back rusted away. The front has a lot of the gilt left as seen in the photo below. It has the eagle on top of the anchor, which is above 3 cannon balls. Also has stars to the right and left, with what looks to be a rope border. Thanks in advance for any help!

Half cleaned


Cleaned as far as I dare:

[MangoAve]

Looks like a pre-CW naval eagle button. Anchor gives it away. There are a bunch of varieties and hard to match up on my phone browser which one. Looks like yours would be a right facing eagle and has the stars. Kinda hard to match up where both legs are side by side.

[Digger_O'Dell]

I did a narrower search and found only 1 other example pictured ad it was listed under the war of 1812. It could make sense as part was waged on the great lakes for the Canadian border.

[fyrffytr1]

Sorry to burst your bubble but that is a fairly modern civilian blazer button. The rusted back is one clue to it's Id. Others are the lack of detail, especially in the eagle and the anchor eye does not extend to the edge of the button where the rope border would go through it. The first one I found had me doing a happy dance and the good feeling lasted until I showed to a friend who correctly IDed it.
Even if it was a military one it could not date any earlier than about 1840 because it is two piece construction. A war of 1812 button would be one piece either convex or flat.

[del]

These eagle with anchor buttons are always up for much debate as to their authenticity because there were some regulation Navy types that were in fact "tin backs". a "tin back" was an early two piece civil war steel back button , these were pretty limited in production when compared with the all brass two piece ones . These same (almost exact ) type of motif buttons were well used in civilian fashion much later and into the 1900's . The type of eagle and anchor on these buttons vary greatly on the civilian types . The real "tin backs" tend to have a thinner profile (flatter type button) than the civilian ones and the details on the front of the real ones is much better .

[fyrffytr1]

These eagle with anchor buttons are always up for much debate as to their authenticity because there were some regulation Navy types that were in fact "tin backs". a "tin back" was an early two piece civil war steel back button , these were pretty limited in production when compared with the all brass two piece ones . These same (almost exact ) type of motif buttons were well used in civilian fashion much later and into the 1900's . The type of eagle and anchor on these buttons vary greatly on the civilian types . The real "tin backs" tend to have a thinner profile (flatter type button) than the civilian ones and the details on the front of the real ones is much better .

We were typing our replies at the same time. Thanks for the added information. I will keep it for future reference.

[del]

We were typing our replies at the same time. Thanks for the added information. I will keep it for future reference.

Your welcome sir !

[Digger_O'Dell]

Thanks for the great info! I did find one listing for an identical tin back union navy button, and an early 20th century reproduction. Odd are it's the latter, though the reproduction I found has a couple minor differences.

[fyrffytr1]

Here's one similar to yours listed under the fashion section at the Waterbury site.
http://www.waterburybutton.com/cart/...dproduct=28813

[Digger_O'Dell]

Here's one similar to yours listed under the fashion section at the Waterbury site.
http://www.waterburybutton.com/cart/...dproduct=28813

Yep, that's the one I saw, thanks!