British Military Buttons: How to Date One, and How to Match a Set

August 30, 2026

Buttons are the most overlooked thing on a uniform and among the most informative. They are regimentally specific, they carry a crown, they are often marked by the maker, and because they get replaced they frequently tell you a different story from the garment they are sewn to.

Turn it over first

The back of a military button usually carries a backmark — the maker's name, often with a town. It is the single most useful dating feature on the button, because makers came and went, changed names and changed addresses, and each version of a backmark belongs to a period.

A blank back is not a bad sign on its own; plenty of genuine buttons carry nothing. But a backmark gives you a real research handle that the front does not.

Then the crown

The same rule that dates cap badges dates buttons, and it is easier to see on a button because the crown is usually the largest element:

King's crown — before 1953, or after 2022.
Queen's crown — between those dates.

Since 2022, a King's crown button is either very old or very new, and the condition and finish tell you which without much difficulty.

Finish tells you the era too

Brass or gilding metal — older, and it develops a patina in the recesses that cannot be convincingly faked.
Anodised aluminium — the bright "staybrite" finish introduced from the 1950s. Light in the hand, and it never needs polishing.
Blackened or bronzed — usually officers' service dress or specific regiments such as the Rifles, where a non-reflective finish was the point.
Horn or plastic — working dress and greatcoats, rather than a downgrade.

Sizing, and why a set never quite matches

Military buttons come in graded sizes — large for the front of a tunic, small for pockets, epaulettes and cuffs. A complete tunic needs several sizes of the same design, and it is very common to find a garment where somebody replaced one large button with a small one, or filled a gap with a similar design from another regiment.

If you are restoring a tunic, measure an existing button across the face in millimetres and buy to that. Buying by eye from a photograph is how people end up with a front row that does not line up.

Fixings

Two arrangements dominate, and they are not interchangeable:

Shank or loop back — sewn directly to the garment. The traditional arrangement.
Ring back for a button hook — removable, so the buttons can be taken off before the garment is cleaned and put back afterwards. This is why so many surplus tunics arrive with no buttons at all: they were removed for cleaning and never went back.

That last point is worth remembering when you see a bare tunic listed cheaply. It is not damaged — it is simply missing the part that was designed to come off, and a set of the right buttons will transform it.

Cleaning them without destroying the value

This is where more button value is lost than anywhere else. The instinct with a dull brass button is to make it shine, and on a collectable button that is exactly wrong.

Do not use metal polish on a badge or button you intend to keep. Polish is an abrasive. Every application removes a little of the surface, and the detail lives in that surface. Repeatedly polished buttons end up soft, rounded and worth a fraction of a crisp one.
Patina is an asset. The darkening in the recesses is what gives the design its depth and what tells a buyer the button is old. Strip it off and a genuine Victorian button can end up looking like a modern reproduction.
Warm water and a soft brush removes dirt without touching the metal. That is usually all that is needed.
Serving soldiers polished their buttons daily, which is why so many surviving examples are worn smooth. A sharp, unpolished button is the scarce thing, not the shiny one.

Sewing them on so they sit right

Military buttons need a shank of thread underneath them — a small stem of a few millimetres between button and cloth — so that the button sits proudly and the buttonhole side can close underneath it. Sewn flat to the cloth, a tunic will not fasten properly and the fabric puckers around every button.

The old trick is to sew the button over a matchstick laid on the cloth, then remove it and wind the thread around the loose stem before finishing off. It takes seconds and it is the difference between a tunic that hangs and one that does not.

Button sizes, and the "line" measurement

Military buttons are traditionally sized in lines (sometimes written as "L" or ligne), an old measure from the button and textile trade that long predates millimetres. You will see it constantly in listings and in old records: a 40L button, a 24L button.

The practical points to know:

Higher number means bigger button. That is the whole scale.
A single tunic uses several sizes. Large buttons for the front, smaller ones for pockets, shoulder straps and cuffs. A complete set is a set of sizes, not a quantity of identical buttons.
Measure across the face in millimetres if you are matching one. Every seller understands millimetres; not every seller uses lines the same way.
Do not mix sizes on the same row. The most common fault on a restored tunic, and it is obvious in a photograph even to someone who could not name a single regiment.

The finishes, in more detail

Finish tells you era, order of dress and often the wearer's status:

Gilt — a gold-coloured finish over a base metal, used on dress and officers' patterns. Bright, and it wears through on the high points first, which is a useful authenticity check: genuine wear appears where a thumb and a cloth would have reached.
Brass and gilding metal — the workhorse finishes. They tarnish, and the tarnish in the recesses is what gives an old button its depth.
Anodised aluminium — "staybrite", from the 1950s. Very light in the hand, and it never tarnishes, which is exactly why it was introduced and exactly why it looks slightly wrong on an older garment.
Bronzed and blackened — deliberately non-reflective, used on service dress and by regiments such as the Rifles, where a shining button would defeat the purpose.
White metal and silver-plated — used by regiments whose metal colour is silver rather than gold. Which metal a regiment uses is fixed by custom and is itself an identifier.
Horn, leather and plastic — working dress, greatcoats and field service. Not a lesser item, just a different job.

The quickest sorting test in the hand is weight. Anodised aluminium is noticeably lighter than brass of the same size, and once you have felt the difference once you will never need to look at the finish again to tell them apart.