Ridgeway Civil War Research Center A virtual examination of artifacts of the American Civil War
	Civil War Plates and Buckles
	by Harry Ridgeway

Plate6399-Virginia-404-FAKE-FANTASY-REPRODUCTION Virginia-FAKE-FANTASY-REPRODUCTION Virginia two part plates, sword up. Research Center: Plate6399-Virginia-404-FAKE-FANTASY-REPRODUCTION . Details click: http://relicman.com/plates/Plate6399-Virginia-404-FAKE-FANTASY-REPRODUCTION.html

P2180 ### P2180 ### Virginia two-part Pritchard, Pritchard fakes files shared. Research Center: Plate6399-Virginia-404-FAKE-FANTASY-REPRODUCTION . Pritchard fakes file shared

P2907 ### Hanover Brass repro: Virginia Two Piece Belt Plate. This is an example of Hanover Brass commercial grade reproduction, the plate has been produced in quantity, sold to the living history market, and is generally readily available. The product has also been used as feedstock for fakes, with chemical aging and other alterations. Gary Williams has provided the following pictures and explanation: Photo # CSVA2 Plate 406 (1855 Virginia Two Piece Belt Plate.) 52 x 90/wreath ht. 52mm. Marked GW. Original is from the Virginia Historical Society collection. My reproduction has very good detail but cast solid. The tongue on the original has applied center disc and the disc is die stamped.This reproduction should not be a problem. Research Center: Plate6399-Virginia-404-FAKE-FANTASY-REPRODUCTION . Photo # CSVA2 civilwarfakes com

P2910 ### Hanover Brass repro: Virginia Two Piece Belt Plate. This is an example of Hanover Brass commercial grade reproduction, the plate has been produced in quantity, sold to the living history market, and is generally readily available. The product has also been used as feedstock for fakes, with chemical aging and other alterations. Gary Williams has provided the following pictures and explanation: Photo # CSVA5 Plate 409 (1855-1865 Virginia Two Piece Belt Plate.) 48 x 82/wreath ht. 48mm. Marked GW. Original is in the Virginia Historical Society collection. This reproduction should not be a problem. The original had a die stamped center disc applied to the tongue. My reproduction is solid cast. The wreath has flaws and marked also. Use these for your reference. Research Center: Plate6399-Virginia-404-FAKE-FANTASY-REPRODUCTION . Photo # CSVA5 civilwarfakes com

P2912 ### Hanover Brass repro: Virginia Two Piece Belt Plate, Ames . This is an example of Hanover Brass commercial grade reproduction, the plate has been produced in quantity, sold to the living history market, and is generally readily available. The product has also been used as feedstock for fakes, with chemical aging and other alterations. Gary Williams has provided the following pictures and explanation: Photo # CSVA7 Plate 407 (1847-1856 Ames Virginia Two Piece Belt Plate.) 49 x 80/wreath ht.48mm. Marked GW inside the tongue disc. This reproduction should not be a problem. The original had a stamped center disc and applied to the tongue bar. The wreath has 19 on top and 62 on the bottom of the inside of the wreath where the tongue disc sets. Also has 35 stamped in both belt loops. Research Center: Plate6399-Virginia-404-FAKE-FANTASY-REPRODUCTION . Photo # CSVA7 civilwarfakes com

P2914 ### Hanover Brass repro: Virginia Two Piece Belt Plate. This is an example of Hanover Brass commercial grade reproduction, the plate has been produced in quantity, sold to the living history market, and is generally readily available. The product has also been used as feedstock for fakes, with chemical aging and other alterations. Gary Williams has provided the following pictures and explanation: Photo # CSVA9 Plate 405 (1860-1865 Virginia Two Piece Belt Plate.) 50 x 83/wreath ht.51mm. Marked GW inside the disc. Original is in the John Bracken collection. The original had a die stamped center and was applied to the tongue bar. My reproduction is solid cast brass. I do cast these with the applied center but the disc is a lot thicker than the thin die stamped disc. You should not have a problem between the original and reproduction. Study the casting flaws because there are a few. Research Center: Plate6399-Virginia-404-FAKE-FANTASY-REPRODUCTION . Photo # CSVA9 civilwarfakes com

P2915 ### Hanover Brass repro: Virginia Two Piece Belt Plate. This is an example of Hanover Brass commercial grade reproduction, the plate has been produced in quantity, sold to the living history market, and is generally readily available. The product has also been used as feedstock for fakes, with chemical aging and other alterations. Gary Williams has provided the following pictures and explanation: Photo # CSVA10 Plate 415 (1850-1860 Virginia Two Piece Belt Plate.) 48 x 73/wreath ht.52mm. Marked GW. Virginia Historical Society collection. This is a very close copy of the original. You need to match the casting flaws to use as your reference. There are several on the back of the tongue disc. Also look to see if the GW was filed out of the back of the center disc. Research Center: Plate6399-Virginia-404-FAKE-FANTASY-REPRODUCTION . Photo # CSVA10 civilwarfakes com

P2917 ### Hanover Brass repro: Virginia Two Piece Belt Plate. This is an example of Hanover Brass commercial grade reproduction, the plate has been produced in quantity, sold to the living history market, and is generally readily available. The product has also been used as feedstock for fakes, with chemical aging and other alterations. Gary Williams has provided the following pictures and explanation: Photo # CSVA12 Plate 417 (1840-1850 Virginia Two Piece Belt Plate.) 48 x 83/wreath ht.56mm. Marked GW on the inside of the tongue disc. It is hard to file the GW from the inside of the disc. From the Steve Henry collection. This is a detailed Virginia and should not be a problem. The original center disc is die stamped and applied to the tongue bar. My tongue is solid cast brass. The original also had a very heavy gold plate. Research Center: Plate6399-Virginia-404-FAKE-FANTASY-REPRODUCTION . Photo # CSVA12 civilwarfakes com

P2920 ### Hanover Brass repro: Virginia Two Piece Belt Plate. This is an example of Hanover Brass commercial grade reproduction, the plate has been produced in quantity, sold to the living history market, and is generally readily available. The product has also been used as feedstock for fakes, with chemical aging and other alterations. Gary Williams has provided the following pictures and explanation: Photo # CSVA15 Plate 416 variant (1861-1865 Virginia Two Piece Belt Plate.) 48 x 73/wreath ht. 50mm. Marked GW. This reproduction is a very close copy of the original. Compare the photo's of each belt plate before you turn your money over to the seller. There should be a difference in the casting flaws. Research Center: Plate6399-Virginia-404-FAKE-FANTASY-REPRODUCTION . Photo # CSVA15 civilwarfakes com

P3261 ### F1261 Virginia two piece buckle, cast spoon style, swords upSource: Pictures of this piece were submitted by a very respected collector for evaluation. Editor note: I post this as a question, is this piece authentic to the Civil War or not, opinions definitely go both directions on this piece? The example published in Mullinax employed a different wreath. The English version is much better made than this piece. Plate 416 is presumably a copy of the English piece. Even it seems to be higher detail than this piece. The most damaging thing with this piece is the matching yet not matching benchmark of AA The letters definitely do not match. There is no indication of any sort of bench marking in the examples in Mullinax and I cannot think of any other buckles benchmarked in this manner. It is very likely that this is a marriage. If a marriage it could not possibly have matching benchmarks, and in any case the benchmarks are not the same lettering style. My opinion is that the benchmarks are bogus, but this does not necessarily mean that the pieces are bad. If it is a marriage, then you have to evaluate each piece separately. The tongue looks a little too close to the Hanover Brass example for my liking, but I have not had an opportunity to lay it beside a HB example to actually compare. If the wreath is a marriage, I have not figured out which buckle this came off of. So at this point, we are left with a question. I am aware that a number of experts have gone both ways on this and some have flipped on the issue along the way. So this is posted as a question, I do not claim this piece to be a fake. But I also do not feel the authenticity has been demonstrated. The answer may not be knowable. Research Center: Plate6399-Virginia-404-FAKE-FANTASY-REPRODUCTION . P3261 F1261 Picture only submitted.

This is the "Ridgeway Civil War Research Center", a research tool for educational purposes only, and is provided at no cost to the reader. Some of the relics listed are retained in the author's collection, most reside in other collections and are not owned by the author. None of the items listed in this section are for sale, please refer to relicman.com sales listings for items offered for sale. This is a work in progress, I list items as I get to them, there are many patterns that are not listed yet, this list will be regularly updated as I get pictures and descriptions for more items. I will also correct mistakes, so if you see any please tell me. All items listed are believed to be authentic to the Civil War or as otherwise described. Any excavated relics have been recovered from private property with owners permission.This information is available for research purposes, pictures may be used by permission only.

Most information on this page is from:
Plates and Buckles of the American Military 1795 - 1874, by Sydney C. Kerksis.
Confederate Belt Buckles & Plates, by Steve E Mullinax.
American Military Belt Plates, by Michael J. O'Donnell & J.Duncan Campbell.

Ridgeway Civil War Research Center, A virtual examination of artifacts of the American Civil War Plates and buckles Research center, plates, click: http://relicman.com/plates/Plate0000-Index.html. Research center, plates and buckles, click: http://relicman.com/plates/Plate0000-Index.html.

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