South Carolina Militia Plate Belt Buckle

[heybubbajay]

Here is a great find...I dig bottles in season and was not having a good day....until this fell out of the ground. I found the circle loop first and thought I had a keyhole surround to an old steamer trunk...but a half hour later I dug the Palmetto spoon and I knew I had a great find...

 

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[Palmetto]

Oh Yeah-last pic is a beauty!!

Palmetto

 

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[hogge]

It is a BEAUTY! It does deserve the banner......but there are rules for a new member. Find of a lifetime buddy! CONGRATS.................Hogge

 

[birdman]

Banner for the buckle and the coke bottle.

 

[fever87]

BANNER for sure!

 

[Valley Ranger]

Yes, I'm voting banner! Many go their lifetimes and never find anything like that.

 

[flakefinder]

That is a awesome find for sure, I sure would like to know the feeling of digging something with that much history up it has to be a very special feeling for sure, Congrats Banner for sure, you have my vote.

 

[rocky raccoon]

mine eyes have seen the glory......dude there are no words....

 

[kevkirki]

coolest buckel Ive seen.....Banner!

 

[hdmech71]

Now that is a nice dump.

 

[jeff of pa]

I see your New.
Date Registered: Yesterday at 09:49:37 pm
welcome to treasureNet.

I like the bottles

 

[BuckleBoy]

but there are rules for a new member.

New Schmew.

 

[heybubbajay]

That is a awesome find for sure, I sure would like to know the feeling of digging something with that much history up it has to be a very special feeling for sure, Congrats Banner for sure, you have my vote.

In response...more detail to the story

I enjoy history and ever since I was a child I had dreamt of being an archaeologist...and this was before Raiders of the lost ark...any-who, I moved to SC to restore a house rich in civil war history. Within two blocks of my home, there are sites where Jefferson Davis spoke, and the makeshift quarters where the SC governor, Magrath, fled to at the end of the war as Columbia burned. There were also proving grounds in the area & I found a site where I believe the local Coca Cola bottling company disposed of its old bottles at the beginning of the last century. I have pulled numerous quality pre-1910 cokes out of the site. It's in a gulley where the side of the gulley wall runs a visible vein of broken glass, all Mid-script cokes or earlier--nothing later then 1910. On a warm day recently I went to dig and I knew I was getting close to pretty much digging the entire site since the vein of broken glass had come to an end. It started as a pretty @$%* day since all I was pulling out of the ground were broken bottles. I was muddy and tired. I was digging probably around 4-6' down. A shovel full of dirt exposed this odd green item. At first I thought it was the surround to an old steamer trunk but it was just too ornate looking. I set it aside and kept digging. About a half hour later the other side fell out of the ground, the spoon side. I wiped it clean and realized it had a Palmetto tree stamped on it...the insignia of SC. I had a civil war belt buckle! It gets more interesting after research because I found it belonged to the 1850s SC militia, the troops that fired on Fort Sumter & started the civil war. New southerners entering the war in the 1860s would have had a CS or CSA buckle. It was shocking. Nothing dug from the site was as old as this item and subsequent digs exposed no other relics. Prior to garbage pickup people would throw their trash down the ravines in the woods as someone likely must have tossed this belt...you never know what you are going to find or where it will turn up!

Here is a circa 1880s Munyon's Paw Paw bottle found around my property...

 

[silversweeper]

I've found a lot of cool stuff while digging for bottles but nothing as awesome as that buckle! Way to go!!

 

[kuger]

That is freaking outstanding!!!Better known as a Tongue and Wreath.Made of Cast Brass

 

[CSA2K]

Unbelievable! Nice job!!!

 

[Palmetto]

That is a awesome find for sure, I sure would like to know the feeling of digging something with that much history up it has to be a very special feeling for sure, Congrats Banner for sure, you have my vote.

In response...more detail to the story

I enjoy history and ever since I was a child I had dreamt of being an archaeologist...and this was before Raiders of the lost ark...any-who, I moved to SC to restore a house rich in civil war history. Within two blocks of my home, there are sites where Jefferson Davis spoke, and the makeshift quarters where the SC governor, Magrath, fled to at the end of the war as Columbia burned. There were also proving grounds in the area & I found a site where I believe the local Coca Cola bottling company disposed of its old bottles at the beginning of the last century. I have pulled numerous quality pre-1910 cokes out of the site. It's in a gulley where the side of the gulley wall runs a visible vein of broken glass, all Mid-script cokes or earlier--nothing later then 1910. On a warm day recently I went to dig and I knew I was getting close to pretty much digging the entire site since the vein of broken glass had come to an end. It started as a pretty @$%* day since all I was pulling out of the ground were broken bottles. I was muddy and tired. I was digging probably around 4-6' down. A shovel full of dirt exposed this odd green item. At first I thought it was the surround to an old steamer trunk but it was just too ornate looking. I set it aside and kept digging. About a half hour later the other side fell out of the ground, the spoon side. I wiped it clean and realized it had a Palmetto tree stamped on it...the insignia of SC. I had a civil war belt buckle! It gets more interesting after research because I found it belonged to the 1850s SC militia, the troops that fired on Fort Sumter & started the civil war. New southerners entering the war in the 1860s would have had a CS or CSA buckle. It was shocking. Nothing dug from the site was as old as this item and subsequent digs exposed no other relics. Prior to garbage pickup people would throw their trash down the ravines in the woods as someone likely must have tossed this belt...you never know what you are going to find or where it will turn up!

Here is a circa 1880s Munyon's Paw Paw bottle found around my property...

Great story.
Have you found any SC Dispensary bottles in that dump?

Palmetto

 

[CMDiamonddawg]

Slightly off topic aside from the buckle being the find of a lifetime , the Union SC S-S Coke is extremely rare , they have a citron coloration. There is one in the Antique Coca Cola Bottle HALL of FAME .. heybubbajay , is it one you dug ? one of the greatest of coke bottle digs , your digging a treasure dump

dawg

 

[JmCraz8]

Love that buckle!!!!!

 

[heybubbajay]

There is one in the Antique Coca Cola Bottle HALL of FAME .. heybubbajay , is it one you dug ? one of the greatest of coke bottle digs , your digging a treasure dump

dawg

The SS Coke probably is not one of mine...they are indeed pretty rare. Consequently, I have found a few circle slug cokes from Union, most collectors were not aware a Union circle slug existed ( see above pics)...There are Union Pepsis from about the same period but are hard to find since the company was only in Union for only a year or so...I have dug only 1/2 of a Union Pepsi bottle...

 

[heybubbajay]

I found one small clear Jo Jo flask but it was flattened and yes, there was also a piece of a broken AMBER dispensary found, but no complete bottles. I will dig literally dozens of cokes then I do find a 2oth century liquor bottle mixed in...my assumption is whoever was dumping the soda bottles may have also swigged some hooch and then got rid of the evidence...

I know a few collectors who dug Dispensaries literally by the barrell back in the day...I have dug three in the past year or so...SC monogram flasks nothing of real interest...