How is this for a CS-5 (Confederate Staff Officer's Button), dug no less, and sold on e-bay and bought by...ME! Yes to all laughing right now, I fell for this hunk of crap three years ago my first week on e-bay. This was my first sting of buying a fake as a collector, and it sucked. The "patina" on the face was not the wet mushy looking stuff it is now, it was a blue/green like a natural brass patina. this is what happens after a few years exposed to the air of my garage. I only lost $50.00, some folks lose thousands. It isn't right. Buttons are easy to tell real from fake because of backmarks. Buy 2 reference books, Uniform Buttons of the United States, by Warren Tice, and buy Military Button Makers and Dealers , by William F. McGuinn & Bruce S. Bazelton. Both will educate you on which buttons are period and which are not. Learn your button backmarks, and it will be virtually impossible to be fooled. As you see on the one above, the sleaze that sold it to me removed the backmark to hide the fact that it was probably made in the 1990's.

Hows this for one sweet North Carolina buckle?? This is the first cast Confederate plate I ever bought or offered for sale, and as it was pointed out to me a week later, it is a fake! I bought this three years ago and was informed it was bad after I listed it on my website. It matched no known reproduction pattern, and as you can see...the patina was perfect. I had the plate examined by Michael J. O Donnell, author and publisher of several reference books on Civil War era buckles, and his opinion was also that it was bad. I pulled the plate, and became wiser to the fact that no matter who you are or how good you think you are...anyone can be fooled. I was burned also on a CS on a belt, and a KMI plate too, but a computer crash several years back eliminated the pictures I had of them both. NONE of these plates are still in circulation I am happy to say as all the bad plates were returned to their original owner.  I gave Harry Ridgeway (relicman) permission to use photos of this buckle on his website to prevent anyone else from making the same blunder I did.  Harry was instrumental in providing me information on this buckle and directing me to Michael O Donnell. I am not perfect, and I hope that anyone that DOES get burned by a bad relic doesn't give up on collecting. Just beware that fakes are out there and do your research.