Gold Rush Era 2- Piece Belt Buckle Found !!

[Relichunter1]

Have not posted in a long time, my lithium battery has gone bad for my Minelab 4500 detector so I thought I would dust off my Whites MXT 300 and do some relichunting. I have a few locations I hunt where the old timers dug gold and I thought of hitting some trashy areas with the smallest coil I have. I set it to relic position and toggle center position for the 2 tone and set my disc at 2. This way I can cherry pick and dig primarily non ferrous targets within the scores of square nails and broken up tin bits. It did not take me long to dig up 2 buttons the type with 4 little holes for the thread to go into and very common in the gold fields. After the buttons I got another non ferrous tone and dug this baby up, the first piece I found was the eagle tongue to the 2 piece and form my past experience it seems its common to find one piece of these 2 piece buckles. I was very happy to find the one piece but I thought I'd circle around some and 6 feet away I got another non ferrous tone and found the holder . Both were found about 4-5 inches deep and in very good condition. This was the first time I found both the pieces that actually belong together.

 

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[villagenut]

Well done, you did the right thing in searching out the other half of it. Really a sweet find!

 

[BH505Man]

Have not posted in a long time, my lithium battery has gone bad for my Minelab 4500 detector so I thought I would dust off my Whites MXT 300 and do some relichunting. I have a few locations I hunt where the old timers dug gold and I thought of hitting some trashy areas with the smallest coil I have. I set it to relic position and toggle center position for the 2 tone and set my disc at 2. This way I can cherry pick and dig primarily non ferrous targets within the scores of square nails and broken up tin bits. It did not take me long to dig up 2 buttons the type with 4 little holes for the thread to go into and very common in the gold fields. After the buttons I got another non ferrous tone and dug this baby up, the first piece I found was the eagle tongue to the 2 piece and form my past experience it seems its common to find one piece of these 2 piece buckles. I was very happy to find the one piece but I thought I'd circle around some and 6 feet away I got another non ferrous tone and found the holder . Both were found about 4-5 inches deep and in very good condition. This was the first time I found both the pieces that actually belong together.

Really nice find. WTG!!!

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Nice job ! Get the Gold Rush belt buckle guide book by "Max Bell"

 

[Digger RJ]

Have not posted in a long time, my lithium battery has gone bad for my Minelab 4500 detector so I thought I would dust off my Whites MXT 300 and do some relichunting. I have a few locations I hunt where the old timers dug gold and I thought of hitting some trashy areas with the smallest coil I have. I set it to relic position and toggle center position for the 2 tone and set my disc at 2. This way I can cherry pick and dig primarily non ferrous targets within the scores of square nails and broken up tin bits. It did not take me long to dig up 2 buttons the type with 4 little holes for the thread to go into and very common in the gold fields. After the buttons I got another non ferrous tone and dug this baby up, the first piece I found was the eagle tongue to the 2 piece and form my past experience it seems its common to find one piece of these 2 piece buckles. I was very happy to find the one piece but I thought I'd circle around some and 6 feet away I got another non ferrous tone and found the holder . Both were found about 4-5 inches deep and in very good condition. This was the first time I found both the pieces that actually belong together.

Awesome!!! Congrats!!!

 

[jewelerguy]

awesome find!

 

[The Rebel]

Beautiful, just beautiful!

 

[CRUSADER]

 

[CoinHunterAZ]

Outstanding buckle! Congrats on the save of both halves.

 

[oldmxrat]

Just fantastic, well done!

 

[ArfieBoy]

Great finds! Congratulations! Thanks for sharing.

 

[Scrappy]

Beauty. I’ve found many pieces of those style buckles, it never both sides! Great find

 

[CC Hunter]

Awesome recovery of two desirable California Gold Rush belt clasp pieces! 😎

These types of two-piece Tongue & Wreath belt clasp (buckle) portions are more often than not found bent or broken. The tongue half of your find is the stamped brass Eagle motif with a rope design encircling the border. As far as rarity with the various styles of California Gold Rush belt clasps (buckles), this is the most commonly seen design for the period. The outer wreath portion you have there, was in fact originally manufactured and intended to go with another style of Eagle tongue, being the cast brass version with 27 Stars surrounding the Eagle. Your wreath is actually heavy cast brass, opposed to the thin die-stamped brass on the tongue you found. While these two pieces will fit together, and could very well have been a mismatched clasp rigged up on a belt after other pieces broke, they are not a true originally manufactured match. Gold miners were ingenious improvisers, continually making the best of whatever they had on hand during the rough hard work of turning rock and soil in search of gleaming oro. There was also a brass belt slide adjuster or slack adjuster on those belts. A good item to keep an eye out for to complete a matched set.

The metal four-hole buttons of the period are always interesting finds. Some are occasionally marked with the company names of businesses in S.F., N.Y., and other locations. The white metal (zinc alloy) four-hole buttons with a circle of dots and black japanned finish are some of the more commonly seen Gold Rush era ones. The four-hole pewter ones that turn up on occasion are in fact military surplus.

CC Hunter

 

[Dirty Digger Doug]

That is so cool.

 

[Rmeav8r]

Excellent! Nice job matching up the other half too!

 

[Coinstar magnet]

Have not posted in a long time, my lithium battery has gone bad for my Minelab 4500 detector so I thought I would dust off my Whites MXT 300 and do some relichunting. I have a few locations I hunt where the old timers dug gold and I thought of hitting some trashy areas with the smallest coil I have. I set it to relic position and toggle center position for the 2 tone and set my disc at 2. This way I can cherry pick and dig primarily non ferrous targets within the scores of square nails and broken up tin bits. It did not take me long to dig up 2 buttons the type with 4 little holes for the thread to go into and very common in the gold fields. After the buttons I got another non ferrous tone and dug this baby up, the first piece I found was the eagle tongue to the 2 piece and form my past experience it seems its common to find one piece of these 2 piece buckles. I was very happy to find the one piece but I thought I'd circle around some and 6 feet away I got another non ferrous tone and found the holder . Both were found about 4-5 inches deep and in very good condition. This was the first time I found both the pieces that actually belong together.

That is a stellar find! Any chance of restoration and making it functional?

 

[Relichunter1]

Coinstar Magnet,

No its just one part of the 2 piece, its best its kept as is , I don't even clean them just a gentle water rinse and dry.