Military Plates

Fairly new to detecting, have some ideas about coins, but I'm blanck about military items or relics. The question is what are "Plates" and what are " Flat Buttons", thanks
 
Hey Mex, welcome to the best hobby in the world. I'm not a major expert and I'm sure others will chime in, but I'll give my best explanation as I see it. Military plates generally consist of three categories-- the belt buckle, the ammo cartridge box plate, and any plate worn above the belt line like the Union army ones affixed to the knapsack strap. They are basically all of the styles and more that you see in this thread, a significant piece of flat metal that usually is adorned with some type of military decoration. Although there are plenty of civilian decorations as well, we focus on the military ones in this thread.

I'm not sure, without looking it up, when plates were first made, but I believe it was sometime during the 1700's. The ones found here in America are anywhere from the 1700's, 1800's, or even 1900's. Most found on this forum are from the Revolutionary war or the civil war.
Many union plates from the civil war have either an Eagle, the letters US, or a State seal on them. The confederate examples include CS, CSA, or southern state seals or depictions. Many variations and examples exist though of different styles and depictions on the front for various groups, regiments, brigades, etc. Some plates have nothing on them at all.

As far as flat buttons, they are just that...flat, one piece buttons made from a singular piece of metal with a loop called a shank affixed to it. Again, no expert here but I believe they were made from early 1700's or even earlier, up into the mid 1800's. They are a common find around old house sites and many variations exist.

Hope this helps
 
Here's one of mine

Tony mentioned to me that I should check out this thread, and after looking through I can see why.... lots of nice plates in here!

So I thought I'd post two of mine... :)

The CS tongue one was found about a year and a half ago... still looking for the wreath!

And the Carbine sling buckle was found about 8" from an ID tag at a Diggin' in Virginia hunt a few years back.

Still looking for a US plate though!
 

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Hey Mex, welcome to the best hobby in the world. I'm not a major expert and I'm sure others will chime in, but I'll give my best explanation as I see it. Military plates generally consist of three categories-- the belt buckle, the ammo cartridge box plate, and any plate worn above the belt line like the Union army ones affixed to the knapsack strap. They are basically all of the styles and more that you see in this thread, a significant piece of flat metal that usually is adorned with some type of military decoration. Although there are plenty of civilian decorations as well, we focus on the military ones in this thread.

I'm not sure, without looking it up, when plates were first made, but I believe it was sometime during the 1700's. The ones found here in America are anywhere from the 1700's, 1800's, or even 1900's. Most found on this forum are from the Revolutionary war or the civil war.
Many union plates from the civil war have either an Eagle, the letters US, or a State seal on them. The confederate examples include CS, CSA, or southern state seals or depictions. Many variations and examples exist though of different styles and depictions on the front for various groups, regiments, brigades, etc. Some plates have nothing on them at all.

As far as flat buttons, they are just that...flat, one piece buttons made from a singular piece of metal with a loop called a shank affixed to it. Again, no expert here but I believe they were made from early 1700's or even earlier, up into the mid 1800's. They are a common find around old house sites and many variations exist.

Hope this helps

It sure does help, thanx a lot. So a flat button does not have to be military related, I found this button the other day, the back reads Joseph Osterman Baltimore. Is this consider a flat button?
 

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Yep, that's a flatty, probably from early 1800's. Not familiar with that backmark and yes flat buttons could be military or civilian. Although there were lots of civilian buttons on various soldiers clothing. A lot of men went to war with the clothes on their back.
 
Yep, that's a flatty, probably from early 1800's. Not familiar with that backmark and yes flat buttons could be military or civilian. Although there were lots of civilian buttons on various soldiers clothing. A lot of men went to war with the clothes on their back.


Bearbqb
Thanks for all the info, u definitely shed some new light on me.
 
Seeing if I can reboot this thread as I’m sure some more good plates have been found in the past two years. I’m just now getting back in the hobby after a long stretch so none from me....YET.
 
Seeing if I can reboot this thread as I’m sure some more good plates have been found in the past two years. I’m just now getting back in the hobby after a long stretch so none from me....YET.

I don’t know about a good plate, but I did find this one since I last posted on this thread. It’s most of a plain militia plate. Probably a cartridge box plate. I hope to find a nice plate one day, lol. All of f mine have been beat to heck — but I still like em
 

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Regulation 1808 Pattern shoulder belt plate

From the slightly smaller size this seems to be a later Army purchase, maybe 1820-1840 so probably no War of 1812 action.
Still no idea why to two grind marks are on the back.
 

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