Silver Belt Buckle!!! Should I get excited? (complete story inside)(update pic)

chukers

Bronze Member
Feb 1, 2010
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Eastland Texas
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Whites V3i - Ace 250 (backup) - Garrett Pro Pointer - Lesche Digger
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting

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Re: Found a Belt Buckle!!! Should I get excited?

I am thinking you could do a couple cart wheels over it sure, why not?

You definitely have an authentic rodeo (Barrel Competition) buckle made with some real Silver. Someone is ill over losing that, I assure you. I'll bet it's worth a good chunk of change.
(120.00-175.00) :dontknow:

The company began in San Francisco in 1886 when J.C. Irvine partnered with a man named Jachens (his first name has been lost to history) and began making brass and silver conchos (and later badges) at the J.C. Irvine Company (later Irvine & Jachens) on Mission Street. In the 1920s, Christian Stegman bought the company, doing silverwork for saddles for Keyston Brothers and others until parade saddles fell out of vogue in the late 1950s. By 1971, Christian Stegman’s sons had divided the business, with Howard Stegman pushing silver buckles instead of badges and moving his company, rechristened Comstock Silversmiths, to Carson City. Irvine & Jachens, by the way, still makes badges outside of San Francisco. In the ’70s, James Stegman’s dad was doing literally hundreds of buckles a month, inexpensive rodeo buckles, good buckles, handmade 20-40-60-dollar wholesale buckles.

In 1990 James Stegman moved his family back to Carson City and worked for his father, and soon began pushing his father to try more expensive looks, using gemstones and better materials. Three years later, he got the go-ahead and Comstock Heritage was relaunched. Today James and his wife Donna live in Carson City, Nevada.

Proceed to doing your cartwheels :laughing7:

92270.jpg
Here is Comstock selling online for a few hundred bones.
 

Re: Found a Belt Buckle!!! Should I get excited?

Woodland Detectors said:
I am thinking you could do a couple cart wheels over it sure, why not?

You definitely have an authentic rodeo (Barrel Competition) buckle made from Silver. Someone is ill over losing that, I assure you. I'll bet it's worth a good chunk of change.
(120.00-175.00) :dontknow:

The company began in San Francisco in 1886 when J.C. Irvine partnered with a man named Jachens (his first name has been lost to history) and began making brass and silver conchos (and later badges) at the J.C. Irvine Company (later Irvine & Jachens) on Mission Street. In the 1920s, Christian Stegman bought the company, doing silverwork for saddles for Keyston Brothers and others until parade saddles fell out of vogue in the late 1950s. By 1971, Christian Stegman’s sons had divided the business, with Howard Stegman pushing silver buckles instead of badges and moving his company, rechristened Comstock Silversmiths, to Carson City. Irvine & Jachens, by the way, still makes badges outside of San Francisco. In the ’70s, James Stegman’s dad was doing literally hundreds of buckles a month, inexpensive rodeo buckles, good buckles, handmade 20-40-60-dollar wholesale buckles.

In 1990 James Stegman moved his family back to Carson City and worked for his father, and soon began pushing his father to try more expensive looks, using gemstones and better materials. Three years later, he got the go-ahead and Comstock Heritage was relaunched. Today James and his wife Donna live in Carson City, Nevada.

Proceed to doing your cartwheels :laughing7:



Here is Comstock selling online for a few hundred bones.


WOW! WOW! WOW!!!!!!!!!! I don't know what else to say! I assume the brass looking metal is gold?

I am going to buff this thing up!

Thank you so much for your info...


Chukers
 

Re: Found a Belt Buckle!!! Should I get excited? (UPDATE ITS SILVER!)

wait till you hear the rest of the story...
 

Re: Found a Belt Buckle!!! Should I get excited? (UPDATE ITS SILVER!)

Well ok... here is the deal... it's not that exciting nor is it really that great of a story... but I am going to tell it as it happened...

First of all I'll lighten the suspense... this is a yard sale find... I know its not a detector find but treasure is treasure...

Every weekend I go out Friday and Saturday mornings mostly Saturday... and I should get out earlier because when you find the better deals... I am always on the lookout for silver and gold but rarely find any. In the 20 or so years of looking at yard/garage/carport sales I really haven't found much of any value...
Well like any other weekend I didn't find much I look for the usual scrap brass copper iron and such. Apparently I missed one sale outside of town... it has been there all weekend Friday Saturday and Sunday till about 1pm ... that when I found it... So I stop.. its on a main roadway so I didn't expect to find anything at all... as I suspected pretty much all of it was junk... as they yelled across the yard that everything on that table is half price... well I see this buckle... and I recognize it as a rodeo cowboy buckle well in this case cowgirl... its pretty tarnished and faded and the back is well worn so I didn't think much of it... but it had some weight to it... so I picked it up and looked at the back... and I read comstock silver silversmith and said to myself well what is that? Well I knew it wasn't plated or it would say plate and I knew it wasn't German silver because it would of said that too... I also knew of the comstock silver mine... and it did not have a price on it... so I gathered a few other things along with the buckle and took them to the lady and I said there is no price on the buckle and I asked how much... I figured it would be a $5 or $10 dollar price tag and if it was I was going to say no thanks.... and then she said .25 cents!!!! I said ok and she totaled up the rest and it came to $2.00 and she said half of that is $1!!! so I paid the lady... now at this time I really didn't think much of it because I haven't yet figured out what I had, not until the Woodlands Detectors guy enlightened me!

now I have a dilemma... should I or should I not return the buckle to the owner and explain what I have learned... what just baffles me to death is that is sat there on the table for 3 days and handled by countless people before I came along and picked it up and was curious about it.

Chukers
 

Re: Found a Belt Buckle!!! Should I get excited? (UPDATE ITS SILVER!)

YOU didn't even know it was worth a lick when you bought it so.....keep it! You did the research you enjoy your buckle.
I doubt the old lady cares anywys.
 

Re: Belt Buckle!!! Should I get excited? SILVER! (complete story inside)

You are so lucky!! You walk along and find a 1910 dime, laying on top of the ground, and now a .25 cent buckle at a yard sale.
The buckle cleaned up beautiful!
 

Re: Belt Buckle!!! Should I get excited? SILVER! (complete story inside)

LASTCHANCE72 said:
You are so lucky!! You walk along and find a 1910 dime, laying on top of the ground, and now a .25 cent buckle at a yard sale.
The buckle cleaned up beautiful!


Most of the time I think we create our own luck... Or at least we can improve how lucky we are...

For example if your driving down the road looking for red cars... Your going to see more red cars if your actually looking for them!
 

Re: Belt Buckle!!! Should I get excited? SILVER! (complete story inside)

Follow what you think you should do. If you think it is okay to keep, then keep it. The lady who had it could have done
the research, but (undoubtedly) didn't.
BUT....if you feel that you should take it back and explain, and see what she says, then DO THAT. Better to have a clear
conscience at the end of the day, and get a good night's rest, then have a nice buckle that is weighing your conscience
down.
Personally, I would keep it.....or sell it.
Great find, no matter THing for it, or finding it at a yard sale. Treasure is Treasure...... :thumbsup:
 

Re: Belt Buckle!!! Should I get excited? SILVER! (complete story inside)

chukers said:
LASTCHANCE72 said:
You are so lucky!! You walk along and find a 1910 dime, laying on top of the ground, and now a .25 cent buckle at a yard sale.
The buckle cleaned up beautiful!


Most of the time I think we create our own luck... Or at least we can improve how lucky we are...

For example if your driving down the road looking for red cars... Your going to see more red cars if your actually looking for them!

I know about luck! Your right on how we create it! I found another wheat
in my front yard today.
 

A well detailed buckle . may be worth a bit more than has already been stated. Since it was not engraved with a name, keep it. You gave them what they wanted for it.
 

lostcauses said:
A well detailed buckle . may be worth a bit more than has already been stated. Since it was not engraved with a name, keep it. You gave them what they wanted for it.

the company that makes these thing has several examples of their works on their site, but none too similar to the one I have... and those are selling for several thousands in new condition. Yes it is not been engraved... but it has been worn.


Chukers
 

that is one awesome find!!! i would sell it and put the money twards a nem md, but thats just me...
 

antlerman23 said:
that is one awesome find!!! i would sell it and put the money twards a nem md, but thats just me...

or paying for the one I just got a year ago... :-)

Chukers
 

you are all correct... that is why we yard sale/treasure hunt/metal detect what ever you call it... I guess though I have been doing it for 20+ years I never really found anything valuable till now... now I need to find out if its worth more as a collectors piece or as scrap metal... I guess in the end that is really what my motives are... and you guys have the experience that why I posted it here too.

it weight just over 75 grams but I don't know if its 100% silver or is that gold on top... or brass...


Chukers
 

To be honest I would not really get my hopes too high about it being silver. It is a relatively generic trophy buckle, and most trophy buckles like that were made out of what they call "german silver", which is an alloy of copper, nickel and zinc. The braid around the edge and the ribbon that the engraving goes on looks to be jewelers bronze. I recognize the background chutes as a pattern used by several buckle makers. Best thing to do is to have a jeweler verify the metal content. I could be wrong and this one has silver, but the looks of the metal in the pic does not have the consistency of silver. Take a silver coin and a clad coin and set them on top, and see which one the background metal looks more like.
 

some of you have raised some good questions so... I went digging and have found some more information...

Comstock Silver - The manufacturer's name for Bimet or Sterling overlay. A sheet of sterling silver bonded to a sheet of 18% nickel silver. Not an electroplate.

so its mostly silver but not 100% >:( but hey for a quarter I'm not complaining!

Chukers
 

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