civil war buckle?

[kylews8973]

Found this in East Tx. I know it's a buckle of some sort..any more into would be awesome

 

[kuger]

....I do get short at times and its not anybodies fault but my own that I let people get to me.I take this stuff too serious at times I guess,and mix that with my no bs type personality,and things come out ....well,we will just say people arent as "hard",these days,and I understand that.HSD and I have quarreled and I think he knows that I mean no hard feelings toward him....but I will call him on things as I want anybody to do the same to me.Thats whats so awesome about this place is we have some fantastic discussion and it has given me far more than I have given it

 

[Bryanhashemi]

sounds good kuger. I understand! Didnt mean to come on strong myself.

 

[kylews8973]

Personally i didn't see any hard done by what Kuger said. It probably gets frustrating when you see people giving false info and getting people's hopes up...not that that's what people are trying to do.

Anyway my next question is how much would the complete buckle be worth assuming it is a state militia buckle, or a police/fireman buckle?

 

[kuger]

.....................I will let the experts tackle that one....I am the guy,you mentioned earlier......all about the "history",monetary is good to know for insurance reasons etc.or if hard times fall,but its not my fort ay

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Kylews8973 wrote:
> Anyway my next question is how much would the complete buckle be worth assuming it is a state militia buckle, or a police/fireman buckle?

Kylews, relics are like anything else in this world -- an object's dollar-value is "set" by how many people desire to own it, and how many of that object exist. High demand with low supply equals high value, low demand equals lower value.

For the sake of discussion, let's say you manage to find your buckle's other half. If it turns out to be a pre-1866 military buckle, there will be hundreds of Military-relics collectors interested in buying it. If it is a civilian-type buckle (fireman, police, fraternal), there will be FAR fewer people interested in buying it.

Getting more-specific... a pre-1866 Virginia State Militia tongue-&-wreath 2-piece buckle sells for $2,000 and up (there are many versions, so value depends on the rarity of the particular version). Also, Northern state military buckles tend to sell for a somewhat lower price, due to lower collector-interest.

A pre-1866 Fireman's (or Police, or Fraternal) buckle would bring only a couple of hundred dollars, because FAR fewer people collect antique civilian-organization buckles than pre-1866 military buckles.

Important sidenote:
In addition to the factors of rarity and collector demand-level, "completeness" (not missing any parts) and condition (damaged or badly corroded) are very important factors in determining a relic's dollar value.

 

[smokeythecat]

Whatever it is, dig that iron out of the ground permanently, and hopefully the other piece will be there somewhere. It's still a great find!