Fakes, reproductions, replicas, an investigative report, by Harry Ridgeway

Fakes, reproductions, replicas,

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FP0691     Virginia militia waist belt plate

Plate measures 49.8mm to 50.2mm (plate is not square) X 68.4mm

This is the Horstmann pattern, I bought this off of ebay, stupid me!  

It is believed that this plate was made by Historical Reproductions, below is the advertisement from their webpage: 

You will note that the logo of this producer is faintly produced on the tongue of this plate.  The hooks on these original plates were very weak and most field recoveries are missing one or both of the hooks.  The hooks were left on the faked plate, but the "HR" logo was filed off the tongue, and on close examination this alteration is visible.  I doubt that the original producer made this alteration, somebody else along the way did this to conceal its identity.  I have recently seen another one of these plates in which the hooks were removed altogether.  After all, most of the field recoveries are missing the hooks, so seeing one of these reproductions missing  the hooks is quite a clever trick!    

Item was purchased from:
Dennis Wheeler 
The Civil War Shop 
807 N Howe St. 
Southport NC 28461

Mr Wheeler has now changed his venue, his new address is:

Dennis Wheeler
5017 B Lawndale Drive
Greensboro, NC 27455

Further he is continue to sell fakes on ebay, new handle is: cputrader60

Editor note:  I am told by other collectors in his area that this seller has a reputation for dealing in questionable items, and at least one collector that I spoke to claimed that he had personally been cheated by this guy.  Further I am told that this dealer shut down his shop in Southport NC and has moved to Hickory NC or vicinity.  So apparently this guy has changed his venue and is preying on the collectors of central NC! 
eFake handle is "ncdealer"  By the way, this dealer has about 20 positive feedbacks on eBay and no negative feedbacks.  Is the eBay feedback system a farce?