This is one of the very rarest Confederate belt buckles in existence. It rates a "10” for rarity on the Mullinax rarity scale.

This particular tongue is shown as plate 42 in Confederate Belt Buckles and Plates, Expanded Edition by Steve Mullinax. There is no wreath shown with it in the book. I acquired it from one of the country’s major Confederate belt buckle collectors who is selling it because he acquired the same buckle in pristine, non-excavated condition. His pristine buckle has the same wreath as this, and he always believed this was the original wreath. I will say that in person it looks more like its original wreath than it does in the pictures shown here. What seems so convincing is that the areas on the buckle that perhaps appear to have light dirt on them actually have gilt. Both the tongue and the wreath have the same sand casting texture and the same speckled remains of gilt.

Since the plate is photographed in the book without the wreath, it must be assumed at that time there was no wreath, so since that time, someone dug the matching wreath or someone found the mother of all marriageable (two separate, original buckle parts, joined) wreaths and joined them. So, no matter how good the marriage, to be on the safe side, we must view this as a marriage, and I am selling it as such.

Its condition is perfect and there is not known to exist a better, or even another, complete buckle of this pattern, except for the one non-excavated example.