After the post about the National Button Society Convention, Woolwinder asked for pictures of moonglow and goofy buttons. Thanks to Peggy Ann Osborne’s book Button Button, I can tell you more about them than I could a few weeks ago.
Moonglows are glass buttons made in West Germany in the 1950s and 60s. They have a shimmery glass body, covered with a thin layer of clear glass. All moonglows have this shimmery, cat’s-eye finish in common, otherwise they might be different shapes and sizes or have different trims or other embellishment.
Goofies are sets of fun, plastic, realistic buttons. Sometimes they come in sets with a theme, like sea-life, with a sea-star, anemone, fish, sea-horse, and shell. Buttonarium has lots of examples of sets of goofies. In the photo here, the blue steering wheel was Eva’s goofy—it might have been part of a ship-themed set.
The others are modern realistic plastic buttons, but they wouldn’t be called goofies—they’re too new. A real goofy would be from the 1930s, ’40s, or ’50s.
The button card is one that Eva made as part of the Amazing Button Race, which kept her and several other kids occupied during the button convention. I am so impressed at how well the National Button Society treats its junior members.