:csflag: Well, I finally have the other half....

[Vernon in Virginia~Formerly Alaska]

[size=large] Y'all remember back in December when I was fortunate enough to find the important half of a rare Confederate artillery style two-piece belt buckle. The senile old lady who owns the property where I found it is "still deciding" if she's going to let us hunt her yard again (if you remember, it was her neighbor who called the police on us, making a 911 emergency call). Anyway, I located an original wreath in Fredericksburg, but the guy wanted $950 for it; it may be worth it, but I don't have $950 to flop down. I located another original artillery style wreath in Texas; the guy was asking $250 for it. After sending him at least 10 emails, one postal letter, and 3 phone calls, I have yet to acquire this wreath and have pretty much given up on him. He did call me once, sounded like a nice guy, but nothing after that.

So, I contacted relic restorer extraordinaire, Leonard Short again . I sent Leonard a reproduction tongue and wreath of the CS buckle I found, and asked him to match the patina to my buckle (the ones I sent him were shiny brass. Well, I got it back today, the match is almost perfect (I'm going to file papers this week to see if I can adopt Leonard), and for now at least I have a whole artillery buckle for display even if the wreath is a reproduction. I also had him mark "repro" on the back of the wreath; it will do until I can acquire the real McCoy. As you can see by the photos, the buckle looks much more complete now and according to one relic dealer, if I can get an original Civil War wreath for this CS buckle, I would then have a relic worth $10,000!!... according to him.

Thanks for looking,
Vernon [/size]

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[Craig in Alabama]

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[Magyar]

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[General Ray]

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[Brian(upstateNY)]

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[Leslie(nova scotia)]

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[charlie (ky)]

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[MeMatt]

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[brandon]

I was always wondering what that thing was :Smile: Awesome find Vernon and congratulations!!!! It is beautiful. My buddy Donnie knows a guy who owns land that was an old Confederate hospital during the War in Tennessee and to his knowledge it has not been detected in over 10 years. I am dying to make a road trip. Here is a pic of the buckle collection so far. My wife even was kind enough to set a spot downstairs for the display. Have a good one and thanks for your posts and contributions to detecting and America.

 

[Vernon in Virginia~Formerly Alaska]

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