Jim,
 
From my experience in California, one-hole bone buttons are the rare  
exception. We find high abundance of 2-hole and 4-hole machine-cut/drilled shell  
buttons; even higher abundance of black and white Proesser buttons; small  
quantities of 2-hole and 4-hole machine-cut/drilled bone buttons. But one-holed  
bone buttons in 19th and 20th century contexts are either exceedingly rare or  
non-existent. But they are found at Spanish/Mexican Colonial sites, which is  
what I mentioned in my past emails. To my knowledge, no one has tried to  
nail-down the time range of one-hole bone buttons in California sites. 
 
By the way, Spanish and Mexican military buttons were usually blank. Mexico  
acquired unknown quantities of the Phoenix trade buttons for military uniforms 
 in the 1830s-1840s. Supplies for uniforms were infrequent out here, which 
would  explain the local manufacture of bone buttons.
 
Ron May
Legacy 106, Inc.
 
 
In a message dated 12/23/2008 3:03:49 P.M. Pacific Standard Time,  
[log in to unmask] writes:

From my  experience in the south and East  the one hole buttons are  found in 
 
urban and military locationsin abundance. The clothing type probably   has 
more 
to do with  finding these on sites than locale.

Jim  Parker
**************One site keeps you connected to all your email: AOL  Mail, 
Gmail, and Yahoo Mail. Try it now.  
(http://www.aol.com/?optin=new-dp&icid=aolcom40vanity&ncid=emlcntaolcom0000002
5)


**************One site keeps you connected to all your email: AOL Mail, 
Gmail, and Yahoo Mail. Try it now. 
(http://www.aol.com/?optin=new-dp&icid=aolcom40vanity&ncid=emlcntaolcom00000025)