Brass Belt Buckle found on farm in Catskills NY

[littleneckhalfshell]

This is the front and back of a Brass Belt Buckle that my dad found years ago with an old Garrett Groundhog.
The property has a house on it that has post and beam construction in the attic and wood pegs holding the attic floorboards in place. Oldest copy of the deed shows a house on it in 1846. It is in the Catskill Mountain Area of New York State. The story we had always heard was that a freed slave from Louisiana lived and worked there at one time, and always assumed that maybe he brought it with him when he moved up North.
I was reminded of it when I saw a post of a similar belt, but it had a smaller tab on the back, not as wide as the one my dad found. Can someone tell me what exactly this is? We always assumed Civil War, but so far from any battle just seems odd. Thanks for looking.

 

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[TheCannonballGuy]

It is a US Army "eagle-&-wreath" Model-1851 swordbelt plate. Your version has a solid-cast brass wreath, which means it is the Officer version. (The Enlisted-men's version has an "applied" wreath, made of stamped nickel-silver.) The Model-1851 swordbelt plate was in service from that year until it was replaced by the Model-1874. There are at least two dozen minor variations. The specific variety you found is shown in the book "American Military Belt Plates (by O'Donnell & Campbell) on page 396, as plate #657. The book says that variety was made during 1863-65. (Note, the book shows some which were made after the war ended, but yours is from the war years.)

Some readers here will want to know the current dollar-value of your excavated Officer-version Model-1851 swordbelt plate. Because it is completely undamaged, and still has the belt-hook on its back, AND is not significantly corroded, AND it was only made during the civil war (not afterward), it would retail on the civil war relic collectors' market for about $275.

 

[DigIron2]

Don't think I have ever seen one found in such great shape.The detail in the stippling is amazing