Unknown two piece tongue and wreath buckle in highly unusual size

[smokeythecat]

My buddy Darryl found this yesterday at a place where most of the relics were dated ca 1900-1960. That being said, there was an old barn out back and it had been demolished. This piece and it's keeper were found within 8' of each other in a burned area, probably trash burning.

THE SIZE is what is so odd. Here's the pic.

Diameter of wreath is 1.5". That's ALL! Height of the keeper about 1 7/8". We did not find the tongue. Any ideas?

 

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[smokeythecat]

Bump for a bud!

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Possibility #1:
According to the O'Donnell-&-Campbell book on US Military Belt-Plates, the buckles for Military School belts often were not as "tall" as actual military-issue ones. For example, the "short" Virginia State Seal 2-piece buckle in that book, and the various state-name military school buckles (short height with very long width -- see the photo below), also shown in the book, on page 523.

Possibility #2:
See the photo below, showing a 1930's swimsuit with a 2-piece buckle very similar to the shape of your friend's find.

For that photo, let me give public credit to Bramblefind, who posted the photo as part of her astounding detective work for the ID solution to a mysterious "Anchor-on-2-piece-buckle" nobody here had been able to identify for years.

 

[smokeythecat]

Thanks. I have the keeper, which I'm giving to Darryl, and we think the tongue is still there.

 

[civil_war22]

I’ve seen the same pattern as the one you posted. It was around the 1880’s the one I found. It had been stored in a barn that burned as well. Funny you say it but I found the wreath portion, and buddy found tongue. Both were heavily charred, and the center was missing. Whatever was in the center melted away with the high heat. You could see remnants of it still attached, but was charred away