Mexican Military Buttons

Gerardo S. Zúñiga

This website is the only place in the world specifically designed for collectors of Mexican military buttons of all periods. This is a forum for the exchange of ideas relating to this unique and fast growing hobby. This site contains a small sample of buttons used by the armed forces of Mexico during its lengthy and bloody military history. This site begins with buttons from early Spanish colonial, war of independence, Iturbide, Republica Mexicana, Maximilian, Porfirio Diaz, Revolution, and ends in the 1990's. All periods are represented within this site.

Last update 01/15/2007

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Introduction

I started collecting Mexican coins quite a number of years ago. I remember buying my first coin when I was in third grade. Back then and for a boy, every coin was new and thrilling. I never missed any of my local coin shows, meetings, or mailing lists. I never saw coin collecting as an investment rather as a pupil of history. I enjoyed the historical side of every coin and how it fit in the historical record. But, after so many years that initial boyish enthusiasm that I felt was gradually lost. I began to assume that just about everything con the coins was already known. I, or I should say, my brother Andres and I amassed a good collection during all those years.

With the advent of the internet, online auctions, etc., the thrill of the hunt, the travel, and the human aspect began to waver, at least for me, and finally I lost interest in the hobby all together. Now a days, all that is required of you in order to get the coin you need or want is to be sedentary in front of a computer. For a few years I traveled and looked for another hobby which would grant me with not only the attraction but also the call that I was looking for and needed. I tried several things with the same result. The longing to relive those early years compounded with a mid-life crisis led me in the path to the present work.

In every show I always carried the Buttery book in my pocket. At the time, it was the most concise for its size. While looking and marking what I had or was looking for, I vaguely remember seeing the button section in the back. I thought it was an interesting novelty but at the time I never thought it would have such a hold on me when I as an old man. Looking at it now, I supposed I wasn’t ready and the timing was wrong for a boy in middle school. In retrospect, I don’t feel that I chose this field but instead I was chosen or in several ways I was meant for it.

I always enjoyed traveling and visiting places in Mexico where historical events unraveled. I could never get over the feeling of reading or researching an event and then visiting the very place where it unfolded. Then, I wanted to find a direct physical connection to all those names I read about over the years. With this idea in mind in 1984 I visited the ranch where the  BATTLE OF SANTA GERTRUDIS  took place back 1866. I walked the field and imagined the events as they unfolded. And yet, the timing wasn’t right.

After some more living and a marriage to a wonderful supportive woman, I returned to that same field armed with a metal detector. I don’t know what I expected to find but there I was in the middle of nowhere in 105 degree temperatures. After a few trips to the place, I never found anything and was getting discouraged but I was learning more about myself in that isolated and lonely place. Finally, a feeling of defeat sank in. I vowed never to return to the place and gave up for good. I started the long walk back to the truck. It was then that all those years of searching for something that I didn‘t quite know what ended. There, in the middle of nowhere I found my first Mexican military button. As I dusted it off, I saw that it was different from anything I was used to. The eagle had a crown over the head and I didn’t know it then but everything clicked inside my head. After vowing never to return to that place, I started commuting to that ranch every weekend for four years.

As I ran across more buttons, I tried to find any information about them. Needless to say, I never found anything. I saw that there were very good reference for American, French, British, and Spanish buttons but not a thing on Mexican buttons. Then, I felt that boyish thrill once again and I was descended into an addiction that would last for years and years. I stared buying or trading for every single Mexican button I could find. It didn’t matter what it was. I began traveling like the my early years to Mexico City, Guadalajara, Puebla, and eventually to Europe in pursuit of my new hobby. I felt like a kid again, or maybe, like my wife says, I never really quit being one. I guess I know now that my childhood stretched for 37 years. Who knows. Whatever the case might have been, I felt cheated by the lack of knowledge, material, or information and my need for a reference guide. In front of me there was over two hundred years worth of buttons to research and I took up the challenge.

At the beginning, I started accumulating as many as I could. I bought everything I could get my hands on. I bought them by the Kilo in Mexico City. I found sacs, cans, mayo jars, etc. full of them all over Mexico. Nothing escaped me. At the time, they were all over the place. In every nook and cranny of the Mexican mercados they could be found in abundance. At times, I came back with over 75 pounds of them. I remember customs agents with a puzzled look inspecting everything. They couldn’t figure out if I was doing something crooked or not. I had no idea that I had stumbled into a neglected field nor what I was getting myself into. But more than likely, I didn’t know any better. I just felt the need to buy them when I came across anything that was a military button where ever or when ever I found it. No place was too far nor any price too high. I always figured I was going to spend the money on something anyway. I chased every lead or rumor. I would consume countless nights sorting mounds and mounds of them after every trip.

I bought so many in such a short period of time that they started to become scarce. I didn’t know it then but I was in the middle of the golden age for buying buttons and over several years of accumulation, they started to make sense where and when in the record they fit or belonged. I began to document, photograph, and catalog what nobody had done before. Since no other reference existed nor anything had been done on the subject, the kid in me took over and never looked back. It has taken me over ten years of my life, countless trips to Mexico, and more money that I would ever admit to my wife even under one of her famous hostile cross examination after a trip. From the moment I stumbled into this, I felt it was something worth doing so I was going to do it for good or bad.

Over all, it has been a great experience that I think few people have experienced. I’ve always said that I was born with more luck than brains. You might be wondering, where is this work going? And the answer is that I really don’t know. Your guess is as good as mine. Maybe I’ll just do buttons while I figure out what I want to do when I grow up.

	BUTTON GUIDE
	BUTTON CATALOG
	CREDITS
	F.N.V.E. / C.O.V.E.
	BUCKLES
	INSIGNIAS
	DECORATIONS
	MEXICAN ARMY
	BATTLE OF SANTA GERTRUDIS JUNE 16, 1866
	CONTACT
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