A round brass army uniform collar button pin with the letters U.S. raised on the surface. Screw post on back.

A common uniform artifact.

In 1937 the Army adopted a new type of disk that differed from the Type I and II in that the disk was two piece. It had a plain blight brass finish with a small square hole in the center. The device of the service branch or the letters U.S. were a separate piece that had the screw post in its back and fit into the hole in the disk. A separate piece screwed on the back held the disk and branch device together and the entire assembly was attached to the uniform with a screw nut. Type III disks were mass produced in the early years of World War Two and are common on period uniforms. Their production was discontinued during the war because they used a fair amount of brass, which was a strategic material. William K. Emerson called type of Type III disk adopted in 1937 a Type IIIa to distinguish it from the more recent two piece disk that I call a "Neo-Type III" and he calls a Type IIIc.

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