 (Confederate Adjutant General button) |
The Civil War Relicman, |
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Winchester, Virginia USA (changed hands 70 times in the Civil War!) |
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I am a collector buying and selling authentic Civil War Relics |
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This page updated January 07, 2008 |
Fakes and reproductions
I will not attempt to document every fake that I see. I see too many to do that. What I do show here are a couple of pieces that I have been involved with.
How do you protect yourself against fakes? There are three things that you must do:
1. Learn as much about the relics as you can before you invest. The first thing you should always buy is the appropriate reference book. Not every piece is in the book but if important details are missing, ask an expert.
2. Always buy from people who will guarantee their relics. I fully guarantee every relic that I sell and if I make a mistake (most of the items on this page are mistakes that I have made) then I give your money back. There is no time frame for this guarantee so whenever it is proven that I sold a fake, you get your money back. You can buy from people like so many of the ebay sellers who do not guarantee their relics, and some wonderful bargains can be gotten this way, but you had better know your relics to do this.
3. Learn as much about the relics as you can before you invest. Seriously, I know I already said this but you can't know too much.
If you are thinking about buying relics from eBay, America's number one personal trading company, consider this:
eBay is but one of many webpages selling Civil War collectibles over the internet.
Although eBay has distinguished itself as the largest internet operator, they are NOT an honest internet operator. The majority of internet operators are honest, ebay is simply not one of them.
Most web operators take consignments, eBay sales are exclusively consignments. When other webpages offer consignments, the consignee, (webpage operator) takes ultimate responsibility for warranting all products sold, whether consignment or owned. eBay has steadfastly refused to take any responsibility, consequently they have become the dominant seller of fraudulent products.
eBay advertises a caveat emptor policy for their consignments, and although that may sound on the surface as adequate warning, eBay actually conspires with the consignors to sell fraudulent products. eBay requires all consignors to hide their identity through the use of handles. Your name cannot be an email address, web address, or heavens forbid your actual name! eBay encourages their consignors to list auctions using "Private Auctions", this to allows the consignor to hide the identity of the bidders so they cannot be warned or tipped as to fraudulent auctions. Further it is against ebay rules to even contact a bidder of fraudulent auctions to warn them. Ebay also awards their "Power Seller" and other designations to volume sellers. Some sellers who have seldom, and some have never sold authentic relics, have been awarded this designation. All of these sales policies are a pattern of conspiracy designed by eBay to defraud the public. eBay sets these requirements, not the consignors and not the customers.
The majority of dealers who sell at shows are honorable, very few or likely none of the honest dealers have significant offerings on ebay.
All of the major dealers have webpages that compete with ebay. Most sales of quality relics are from the legitimate webpages, and not eBay.
Most of the major dealers in Civil War, are also collectors and are very careful to protect their reputations. Most of these collectors are in it for the long haul and you don't play in the long haul by cheating people.
Most of the major dealers in Civil War offer lifetime guarantees to back their sales, the dominant sales on ebay are fakes and eBay only guarantees heartache.
In short eBay is engaged in a massive conspiracy to defraud the public, and this will be their undoing eventually. No other webpages selling Civil War relics operate this way.
Some collectors have become frustrated with internet sales. The problem is not internet sales, the problem is 99% eBay. So far they have tried to insulate themselves from legal liability, but I suspect this defense will crumble pretty soon. Sleezebay is not the only game in town. Follow the links around the major webpages. You won't see those people systematically selling bad stuff on the internet the way eFake is doing.
I do not intend to be a clearing house of fakes or fakers. Everybody makes mistakes. If somebody claims not to have been burned by a fake, they either have not been collecting very long, are in denial, or are actively selling fakes. The difference between an honest seller and a dishonest seller is what you do with the mistake, do you absorb it or do you try to stiff another collector? Below are items that I have regrettably had some involvement with along the way, and I can assure you that I take care of my customers:
P0691 Virginia
militia waist belt plate
There are two variations of this plate, one made by JS Smith, the other by
an unknown producer. This is a reproduction of the unknown producer and
the stock for this producer is slightly heavier than the stock used by JS
Smith. This faked plate was originally made by Historical
Reproductions, a producer that makes high quality reproductions. Below is
a picture of one of their buckles advertised and sold as a reproduction:
You will note that the logo of this producer is faintly produced on the tongue
of this plate. The hooks on these original plates were very weak and most
field recoveries are missing one or both of the hooks. The hooks were left
on the faked plate, but the "HR" logo was filed off the tongue, and on
close examination this alteration is visible. I doubt that the original
producer made this alteration, somebody else along the way did this to conceal
its identity. I have recently seen another one of these plates in which
the hooks were removed altogether. After all, most of the field recoveries
are missing the hooks, so seeing one of these reproductions missing the
hooks is quite a clever trick! I do not accuse this producer
of making the fakes, they advertise all their products as reproductions and most
are marked in some way with a logo or other distinguishing feature.
However these reproductions are high quality and the fakers are buying them,
then removing the logos, aging them, and otherwise altering them to
produce fakes. You guessed it, this was an eFake deal in which I was
duped!!!!
The authentic buckle is presented and explained by Mullinax Expanded Edition , plate 432
Item was purchased from:
Dennis Wheeler
The Civil War Shop
807 N Howe St.
Southport NC 28461
Mr Wheeler has now changed his venue, his new address is:
Dennis Wheeler
5017 B Lawndale Drive
Greensboro, NC 27455
Further he is continue to sell fakes on ebay, new handle is: cputrader60
I am told by other dealers in his area that this seller has a reputation for
dealing in questionable items, and at least one dealer that I spoke to claimed
that he had personally been cheated by this guy. Further I am told that
this dealer shut down his shop in Southport NC and has moved to Hickory NC or
vicinity. So apparently this guy has changed his venue and is preying on
the collectors of central NC!
eFake handle is "ncdealer" By the way, this dealer has
about 20 positive feedbacks on eBay and no negative feedbacks. Is the eBay
feedback system a farce? (posted)
P0730 CSA
Bannerman
Measures 41.5mm to 41.9mm (plate is not square) X 61.2mm
This CSA plate was sold in 2001 as part of a large box of plates (there were a couple hundred in
the box) claimed to be Bannerman recast plates. There was some original Bannerman paper work suggesting
that this plate is an "original" "Bannerman". It is at least
3rd or 4th generation casting. Thousands of these plates were produced in the
1960's or earlier.
Editor Note; I purchased this plate from a dealer in 2001 for $10, it was advertised as a Bannerman product. I actually think this may be a copy of one of Bannerman's copies, and not an "original" Bannerman
P0731 CSA
Bannerman altered to pass as a fake
Measures 46.4mm to 46.8mm (plate is not square X x 67.5mm
This CSA plate is believed to have been made by Bannerman originally. Along
the way, the hooks were cut down and the plate was artificially aged to give it
this nice green patina. Then it was sold on eFake and a novice collector (now a
knowledgeable collector, but slightly poorer for the experience) bought it and
paid full value for it.
Editor note: Plate was given to me by the collector who absorbed this plate to use to educate people so here it is!
P0732 CSA
Bannerman
Measures 46mm x 67mm.
This CSA plate is believed to have been made by Bannerman originally and has
not been altered. It was worn by its owner in the 1960's, then passed through an
estate. Somewhere along the way, it was said to have been dug, but this plate
was never in the ground, in my opinion.
A note about size. This plate looks to me to be exactly like my item P0731
above but it is slightly smaller in height and slightly larger in width.
All of these cast CSA buckles, authentic ones as well as fakes, and Bannerman
reproductions, are hand finished. The rough edges are filed and it does
not take much of this work to change the size of a plate by as much as one mm or
fractions of one mm. Further, even the authentic plates were produced in
muli-generations, that is the original pattern would be used to produce a
plate, itself then used as a pattern for the next generation, and up to 3 or 4
generations can be produced from the same pattern, each one smaller than the
previous.
There will also be slight differences in the details of the lettering and periods. The mold is a sand casting off a pattern. If grit forms, that creates low spots, if grit is removed or rough edges "cleaned up" that creates larger letters, funny looking bumps and serifs etc. So there will be variations, almost on every plate and there is no way for all of the possible variations, fakes and real, to ever be captured in any of the books on Civil War plates.
Editor Note: Plate was submitted to me for analysis. I told the owner that I thought it is a Bannerman repro.
P0572 Ohio Militia
sword belt plate
Integral cast motif, digger claimed this plate was found in 1999 along with
original keeper. Turns out to be fake.
Buckle was produced in 1979, using O'Donnell & Campbell Plate 678 as the
pattern. Somebody then "planted" this buckle in the ground for
20 years. It may have been innocently dug by the digger 20 years
later, in 1999. By then it had developed a beautiful dug patina that
nobody could question. Indeed this buckle initially passed muster with
most of the experts, including some authors, dealers, and several collectors with
major buckle collections. Indeed it passed through the hands of three very
well known Tennessee dealers before I bought it. Lest you think the
Tennessee dealers are naive, it passed muster with most of the Virginia dealers
I showed it too as well, they just did not get to own it. An exhaustive effort to trace back to the source
led to the manufacturer, Hanover Brass. Here is a piece that I bought from
Hanover Brass, all the
details matched exactly.
Editor note: This buckle was sent back to the Tennessee dealer that sold it to me, and each of the previous dealers in the ownership chain refunded the sale without argument. That is of course till it got to the last guy who had bought it from the supposed digger!
P0607 Early
Militia silvered militia panel plate, 1845 - 1865
This patriotic design, referred to as a panel plate is very similar to O'Donnell & Campbell, Plate
403 which was popular with the many state militias before the Civil
War. Normally made of brass and gilded or silvered, this plate
is die stamped from the original die onto a thin tinned plate. Because it
was made from original dies, and the hooks are soldered on, I was initially
fooled by this one. However it was discovered that the plate is made of
thin iron and not brass, probably in the 1880's as a souvenir piece. This piece is not "silvered", it is silver painted
to look silvered and is poor quality. It should be noted that the plate
was intended as a souvenir in the late 19th century or early 20th century.
This plate was purchased from Mike Snyder of Florida. It was purchased in April 2001, the fake was discovered in December 2001 and I attempted to return it the next time I saw him which was January 2002. By then he claimed that he did not remember selling the piece so refused to refund it. This is another issue lurking out there. This was a cash sale at a show, so without the sellers memory working the guarantee was worthless. This fellow claimed to guarantee his relics but if he does not agree that he sold it, what can you do? It is a good idea to get the guarantee in writing. In defense of this seller, he probably didn't know it was a fake when he sold it to me, and maybe he really did not remember it. However, my memory is just fine on this piece, but I am the one stuck with it! Meanwhile this gentleman has died so this fine piece has gone into my fakes box!
B2123
South Carolina Palmetto Guard button
I have had several Palmetto Guard buttons. This was an
eBay offering with less than great pictures. The seller claimed this came
from a sale 15 years ago. It had in fact been manufactured in the last
couple of years by a manufacturer of reenactment supplies. This button is
cast, the original is of course stamped. Button should not fool anybody,
once in your hand it is heavy and obviously cast and the manufacturer
intentionally took out some of the details so the button would not be confused
with the real thing. Here the fraud was perpetuated by offering it on
eFake, using crummy pictures where you could not see the details along with a
good story. Again it was not the manufacturer who committed the fraud, it
was the ebay seller who did this and his name is:
J Taylor
eFake handle "rwt007"
806 Engineer Street
Corbin KY 40701
Eventually a fraud claim was filed and collected from eBay. But I must tell you that if you have reason to distrust eBay, ala eFake, I can give you an earful. I used this case to test the system, they did eventually pay, but they tried every trick in the book to trip up my claim, protect this seller who along the way admitted to the fraud, and disallow the claim. eBay is every bit as sleezy as advertised. It is probably not worth trying to collect from them and that is the way they want it to be. The lesson of course is just don't buy from people like this no matter how good the deal seems.
P0855
CS tongue & wreath repaired buckle
This buckle was originally purchased in 2002, and sold by me, then returned in
2004 with the discovery that the keeper to the wreath has
been repaired. It is indeed the same buckle originally sold and there is
no doubt that that the piece was repaired. It is now evident that the
entire buckle has been coated to obscure this flaw. Indeed some of the
coating has started to flake off, I see several spots of flaking. This is
typical of coatings, versus oxides, coatings eventually dry out and flake off,
whether on a buckle or wood siding on a house. Where it covered the epoxy
the flaking is most severe, causing exposure of the now obvious repair.
Also of concern, the flaking has exposed yellow metal in several places, most
notably the edges around the tongue. It is not clear why the metal
underneath of the coating is yellow, original dug patina would not be
yellow. This raises the possibility that the tongue, which does not appear
to be repaired, may or may not be original. It is impossible to determine
the authenticity of this plate with this coating in place.
Here are pictures originally emailed to me when this plate was sold :
Here are pictures of the plate when presented on my website to be sold:
And here is the plate when it was returned, I accepted return of this plate, clearly showing a repair to the keeper of the wreath:
The plate was passed back to the gentlemen I purchased it from, and he passed it back to the dealer who originally sold it to him, so everybody was honorable in this transaction. I doubt that the first dealer was able to return it to anybody. The repaired wreath was eventually sold to a third party as a repaired wreath, I do not know the whereabouts of the tongue, except to say it is no longer traveling with this wreath. Anybody can make a mistake in this business, I was fooled by this one along with another dealer who I respect. The difference is that the honorable collectors and dealers with reputations, make good on their mistakes, the fakers do not.
BK010
Repro
Buckles of the Civil War, Tell the Real from the Repro
by Howard R. Crouch
This wonderful book illustrates and identifies hundreds of the many fake and
reproduction buckles that are on the market today. If you plan on buying any
expensive Civil War buckles, you must have this book. A must reference book for
the buckle collector.
Softbound , over 130 pages fully illustrated
$19.95, postage
anywhere in the lower 48 is $2.00, total $21.95. Virginia residents add 4.5% sales tax. Just
send me an email, relicman@shentel.net and tell me that you
are ordering the Crouch Repro buckle book and either send credit card
authorization through paypal or mail a check to me for $21.95 and I will rush a copy to
you.
