✅ SOLVED US Cival war Belt buckles, buttons, patches, envelope and pin

[acestu5]

Im a Storage buyer, and this past weekend i purchased a unit. After digging half way through the unit i came across a wooden box with a clear glass top and inside are some (what i believe to be) Cival war belt buckles, buttons, patches, a envolope and a pin. i was wondering if anyone could help me out and give me a brief history lesson and possibly tell me the value of the pieces. any help will be greatly appreciated. Cody Trump

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[d2]

The one with the star is a cartridge box plate. The Eagle button is a general service button that is still used to day and is not Civil war related. Everything else could be CW related. I do not know about the patches. The Eagle breast plate and the US buckle look good to me. You need to concentrate on the button's and the Star box plate. If the Texas button is genuine it may be worth a buck or two. The 7th Cavalry crossed sabres and the snake buckle may or may not be very old. Great find...d2

 

[creskol]

Here is my take on the items in question:

 

[BuckleBoy]

I am on board with the texas plate being a repro. The texas button is certainly post war--and the buyer (former owner of the storage building) might have gotten taken on the purchase of both relics! The envelope is period, not sure about the patches. The US and Eagle Breastplate are Civil War relics. The buckles with hearts and bullseyes are not all period, though they commonly--and wrongly!--get sold as "Civil War blanket roll buckles." They are in fact harness buckle shields (horse tack), which were mis-identified in one ID publication a long time ago.


Best Wishes,


Buck

 

[BuckleBoy]

Oh, and I forgot to say...the snake buckle is post-CW by far. That is not the style that shows up from time to time in camps as a CS blockade runner item.

Regards,


Buck

 

[acestu5]

i appreciate the feedback. as much as i would like to hang on the whole collection, i like money alot more. Is there any value in this collection? separately or as a collection?

 

[creskol]

Personally, I think your best bet would be to describe it as accurately as possible an toss it on ebay.
You can also search ebay to see what the repro's, buttons, etc. are selling for.
Just for curiosity sake, is the case marked on the bottom?

 

[acestu5]

No, no marking on the bottom of the case

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

First... since you are not a civil war relic collector, perhaps I should clarify that when we collectors use the broadly generic word "postwar," it means the relic dates anytime from 1866 through the end of the 1800s. More specifically, in Militaria collecting, the Indian Wars era runs from 1866 to 1897, the Spanish-American War era is 1898-99, and then the World War One era is 1900-1918.

I agree with everything you've been told by Buckleboy, Creskol, and D2. I'll add some info for you on items they did not mention, or were unsure about.

The button showing a small eagle atop a large shield is a New York State Militia button. It has what we collectors call a "wide" flat rim (instead of a narrow one), which means your NY militia troops button is postwar, dating from the 1870s through the end of the 1800s.

Unfortunately, the cavalry crossed-sabers (with a number 7) is definitely a 20th-century Imitation ...for too many reasons to list here. I'll just note the lack of the typical four scabbard-rings, and it being solid-cast "silver-ish" metal instead of yellow stamped-brass, and the fact that there is no exact match-up for it at: History of U.S. Cavalry Insignia

You asked for dollar-values:
The most valuable of your metal postwar items are the Texas and NY buttons, which are worth about $10 each.
The horse-harness buckles are worth $1, if that much.
Regarding the excavated ("dug") civil war era eagle-breastplate and oval US cartidge-box plate ...as with coins, Condition is enormously important. Due to the rim-damage and heavily corroded condition, the oval US plate would retail for about $50, and the breastplate about $75.

I did not include the 5-point star boxplate in the above list, because it would need to be authenticated by at least three professional dealers as being an Orginal (not a Reproduction) before its value can be determined.

My area of study in the past 30-something years has been metal relics, so I cannot help you much about your non-metal ones. All I can say about them is that they appear to be Original ones ...but I cannot date them specifically enough to estimate their dollar-value.

 

[NOLA_Ken]

The two "shoulder straps" are Brigadier General (star) and the one with the leaves is a Major, I believe Artillery with the red background, but I'm not certain on that. I don't have them in my hand to study obviously, but my instinct is that they are post Civil War but still old. The differences are pretty subtle and not easy to pick out in a photo, things like the brightness of the bullion thread, the widths of borders etc. If I had to put a guess on an age range, based solely on what I can see I would say 1870's to possibly 1920-ish.

You can check out some examples here : Album of Shoulder Straps Index

The infantry bugle patch looks to have some age to it as well, but again it would take better close up photos to properly date it. I don't know much about those so I can't really help.

There's always the possibility that they are artificially aged reproductions, the best thing you can do is to find someone local to you who knows these things and have them checked in person. They'll have a bit of value just by being officer ranks, but you'll need to pin an age to them first to know what they are worth.

edit : I forgot to add one quick test is to look at them under a blacklight if the threads light up at all they are modern reproductions. BUT there are fakes made with period style thread that has no UV brighteners that will pass this test, it doesn't necessarily make them original if they don't light up, just definitely fake if they do.....