Found a military button today

[BillZ]

Today I went to a nearby neighborhood park. It is where I usually go when I have limited time and don't want to travel far. It's been worked over pretty good and I was going over it slowly with my deep silver program. The detector caught an iffy signal bouncing around in the 70 and 80 VDI range at about 6 inches deep so I dug it just to see what it was. Out popped a large gold button! When I saw the eagle on it I put my stuff away and came straight home to identify it.

After visiting a few sites, It looks to be an Army button but I am having trouble finding one just like it.

Not far away from where I dug it is the woods where I find lots of WWII era items.

http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii112/BillZBub68/IMG_1864.jpg

http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii112/BillZBub68/IMG_1866.jpg

I would appreciate it if anyone can help me identify it.

[HEAVYMETALNUT]

cool button.looks like WWII to me.nice job!

[del]

hey Bill thats one of the best Geat seal (1902 to present) buttons i've seen dug , beautiful gold gilt left on that one
it could be WWI but i speculate its probably WWII but the back mark could confirm it , can us get an accurate back mark
off the button?? congrats on a nice military relic. thumbsup01

[BillZ]

hey Bill thats one of the best Geat seal (1902 to present) buttons i've seen dug , beautiful gold gilt left on that one
it could be WWI but i speculate its probably WWII but the back mark could confirm it , can us get an accurate back mark
off the button?? congrats on a nice military relic. thumbsup01


I'll try to get a better look at it this evening. The back is pretty corroded. I found a WWII example on the web but the e plurbus unum banner in the eagles' mouth looks like it is spaced a little further away from the tops of the wings.

[Lowjiber]

I'm hardly an expert, but served as an Army officer in the middle 60's. That strongly resembles the jacket buttons on our dress blues.

[coinnut]

I tried to see which variety this button is in Albert's book and the closest I could come up with was the first button shown with the new design. It is GI 102. It is the closest eagle design. There are some areas that do not mach up, (like the distance from the ends of the scrolls to the border, and the positioning of the leaves on the bottom left). But the book also states, many slight variations So it may be that variety, and since Albert's does not change the dates on each button, I can only guess it started in 1902 and was produced for a number of years. The thing that makes me think it's right around the beginning of that design, is the fact that the back is copper and not steel. These buttons were issued in all grades from private to Lt. General. Just my guess on it. :confused:

[HEAVYMETALNUT]

from what i can see the back mark is a WATERBURY BUTTON CO
it's pretty clear.WATERBURY is on the left BUTTON CO is on top .
the T is just below the shank and going up left side you can vaguely see ERBUR and Y is clear as day at about the 9 o'clock position.
to the right of shank you can see CONN