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Founded in 1906 by George G. Greenburg and Henry J. Duckgeischel, Greenduck (later, Green Duck‚ was a leading manufacturer of pinback buttons and other small metal advertising novelties. However, the partnership ended soon after the creation of the company when Duckgeischel left the company. Greenburg was the driving force. He had invented and patented a method for making bi-metallic coins and was a natural dealmaker. He supplied novelties to the Democratic Party, the Republican Party, and the US government. And ad campaign in 1916 claimed that “Every Greenduck Novelty is an advertising campaign in itself.” 

In 1922, Greenburg, in debt, sold the company. Under the leadership of new head William U. Watson, the company absorbed the patents of J. L. Lynch Company, including the patent for lithographed buttons—a method that was cheaper and easier to replicate than celluloid buttons. The company managed to survive the market crash of 1929 and the Depression, promoting a worker-friendly environment. Green Duck signed agreements with many unions such as the Metal Polishers’ International Union, the Metal Workers International Union, the International Association of Machinists, the American Federation of Labor (A. F. of L.), among others. Some of these relationships lasted for many years.