Assortment Of Buttons (Military, Railroad, Etc?). Can You Place Age/History/Any Value? & Kendall Oil Token.

[Critterhunter]

Somebody on here a few weeks back gave me the tip of trying a loop to enhance close up ability of my manual focus digital camera/camcorder. I want to thank you for that as it worked great! Gone are fuzzy close ups for me now, so I figured time to start sorting through my piles of buttons, tokens, and other curious items and see if I can get some info on what they are, how old they are, and if they have any value to them. I've got tons of this stuff but plucked a few out for starters just to see how the camera using a loop did with close ups to get the ball rolling. Couldn't be happier with how they turned out, or at least it's far better than the close ups I could get before.

Thanks for any help you might be able to give me on this as buttons and tokens are not my expertise by far. What I'm in particular interested in is what I suspect are two railroad buttons. The two with the L.S.&.M.S. initials on them as I think they stand for railroads? The smaller one has a round linked moving loop with some decent size to it (far bigger than a typical loop on a button). What was that "button" used for on a person's uniform or whatever? If those are indeed railroad buttons I'm wondering if they might have some value to a railroad enthusiast. Same deal with the Kendal oil token as I hear oil company related stuff is pretty big to some people, and of course if any of the other stuff below might have any value as well. I doubt any of this stuff has any value above what they mean to me in my pile of "treasures", but it never hurts to ask, does it?

For size reference of the stuff the Kendall Oil token is probably the size of a quarter.

 

[Critterhunter]

One more post of pics after this one...

 

[Critterhunter]

Last few close ups...

 

[Aarong81]

In your first post, the 3rd, 4th and 5th pictures are of a "great seal" button that was first issued in 1902 and continued to at least WWII. The next picture, 6th, is one I definitely recognize... See this link here for more info on it as I was able to ID this one before.....
Royal Italian Navy Button <<<-----------< Click for more info.

Hadn't had time to look up your other buttons, hopefully someone else will help find some info on them as well. Sorry I couldn't ID more.

 

[bootyhoundpa]

nice stuff critter.... i have that same kendall oil token,i found mine over here on eastern side of pa in a yard that was part of a turn of century hotel.... i dont know anything about those other button but i have some theories..... could RY -stand for RAILWAY ??? those other buttons excluding the great seal -us army buttons appear to be european , i say this because the flurdelees is a common french symbol.... and that other one with the 2 horses kinda reminds me of the lowenbrau beer label...... and that one with the harp kinda has me thinkin ireland...just theories though...... how did you aquire them? nice stuff....

 

[Ant]

FIrst post from right to left, button number 2, 3, and 4 are US Air Force buttons. Here is a pic of the first post top right button # 2 is an US Air Force Button:

http://www.militaryuniformsupply.com/files/us-airforce-tropical-dress-blue-jacket-1969-vintage-front-button.jpg

Second post button, # 1, 2, 3, and 4 are junk blazer suit coat buttons, button # 5 and 6 are from the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway System,

http://www.worldcat.org/title/lake-shore-michigan-southern-railway-system-and-representative-employees-a-history-of-the-development-of-the-lake-shore-michigan-southern-railway-from-its-inception-together-with-introductory-and-supplementary-chapters-tracing-the-progress-of-steam-railroad-transportation-from-its-earliest-stages-in-america-and-abroad-records-of-many-men-who-have-worthily-upheld-the-interests-of-the-l-s-m-s-ry-company/oclc/058875207

 

[Critterhunter]

Wow, I want to thank all of you guys for the fantastic effort and resources you provide in this forum. I've got to start learning the button stuff anyway so this is a good way to begin. As sites get harder and harder to pull old coins out of I see digging the low and mid conductors for buttons as a great reason to keep going back to "dead" sites with a little extra motivation, and of course we all know that even pounded sites never truly run out of old coins to be found if you put the effort in and start digging the signals we all think we know better than to bother with. Thanks again for all the help thus far, and I'll dig some more buttons and tokens out of my piles of finds laying around to show and see what age/history/value you guys think any might have. I know odds are that 99.9% of all buttons, just like old coins, have just about zero value, but then again if you don't ask then you never do know for sure. Most of us I'm sure feel that the value a find has to us, worthless or not, is still priceless because of the experiences and history involved.

As to where I've found all this stuff. It's funny, but as lousy as my memory is at times I can remember where many of my finds came from down to a 5 foot square area over the years. Not all of them by far of course, but many. The potential rail road buttons I found right near some rail road tracks, which is one of the reasons I suspected they were rail road related. The silver air force button (I guess it is?) I found laying right on top of the ground at a construction site. The 3 or so similar or exact looking buttons of 3 different sizes I found at a mowed large grass field, and have found several others of those same buttons there along with a few other different buttons at that particular site.

By the way, the big "button" with the white paint on it is not a button. The back of it has some large square mounting areas and I suspect it was a bag name plate for perhaps a bicycle or something.