Exceptional condition non-excavated South Carolina waist belt. Palmetto tree device applied a mid-19th century pattern, featuring a laurel-leaf wreath design acquired by many southern states before the war and copied extensively by the Confederacy. The Palmetto tree emblem sometimes called the SC "Military Seal" was a popular representation of the state's original 1776 state seal and displayed on contemporary buttons and other insignia. This example configures to Plate 353 on page 193 in the reference "Confederate Belt Buckles & Plates" by Steve E. Mullinax.