[davidwyke]

Further to the above, I thought it might be interesting (?) to explore this whole saga from a different angle. It's one which Roger already touched on earlier with his anodised East Surrey Regt button.

I have a large collection of anodised buttons, including virtually all of the early KC issues. I've just had a quick look through them to see what they might reveal. First off, aprox 30% of them were made by Gaunts. So, of the Gaunt buttons:

1) All except 2 have the "Gaunt London" backmark which is the subject of this thread. I think it's generally accepted that anodised buttons were phased in beginning in the late 1940's. So it more or less confirms that the "Gaunt London" backmark was in use by the late 1940's, perhaps it was even introduced with the anodised buttons themselves. The two exceptions are both KC and they have the earlier JR Gaunt & Son Ltd backmark. Presumably they are amongst the very first buttons to be produced or may even be from an earlier trial. Conclusion - I don't think the possible "1949" date for the introduction of the backmark can be far out.

2) The vast majority of the buttons have the backmark with properly formed letters, as does Roger's example. A small percentage have the defective letters. I'm not sure what this proves, perhaps they tended to use different backmark dies for the production of gilt & brass buttons?

3) Not a single button has the "blue/green" tint on the back. What does this say? Well, to my mind it doesn't do much to allay my suspicions about them, as detailed above. Then again, perhaps it might be down to different production techniques for anodised and metal buttons. As I said above, chances are we will never know for sure.

David