Button Collecting

Normally, a button has four holes in it and gets sewn on a shirt, but not for this married couple of 20 years. Ann and Johnson Frazier have collected more than 5,000 buttons in a 10-year span. The two are serious button collectors who have entered button competitions around the world. It all started with a neighbor giving them a pizza box full of buttons for a flea market. Hearing of a single button valued at thousands of dollars does not surprise the couple. Here's good-to-know info for starting your own button collection.

• Rare "Skating in Central Park" buttons based on the famous Currier & Ives Print are worth $500 to $800.

• Modern and vintage glass buttons from the Czech Republic are popular collectibles. They're pretty easy to find, and you can still pick them up for a few dollars each. Czechoslovakian glass buttons from the 1920s are typically around $3 and up.

• A 1789 George Washington inaugural button can be worth up to $5,000.

• A more realistic find that still holds value would be a military uniform button with the etching on the back.

Resources
National Button Society
c/o Lois Pool, Secretary
2733 Juno Place
Akron, OH 44333-4137
E-mail: btns@voicenet.com
Also in this Episode

Ultimate Collectors : Episode UTC-106
•	Statue of Liberty
•	Staffordshire Transferware
•	Button Collecting
•	Matchbooks