Offered for sale is a beautiful “non-excavated” two-piece South Carolina Officers buckle measuring Dimensions: 56 X 85mm / wreath ht. 52mm, with production date range of 1855-1865, with  both tongue & wreath stamped numbered #22. Construction: gold-plated tongue disc and belt loops, die struck construction from five pieces of rolled brass with high copper content. This pattern plate is typically encountered on its original belt. Very similar to Plates 351 & 353, reference pages 192 & 193, “Confederate Buckles and Plates by Steve Mullinax; Expanded Edition.” Referenced that individual Officers usually acquired these belt sets, when purchasing a sword, and in many cases entire companies ordered such finely crafted belt sets. The Great Seal of South Carolina was “set” or “affixed” to the Ordinance of Secession of December 20, 1860, at Secession Hall in Charleston shortly after 7:00 p.m., following which convention delegates signed it, including Robert Barnwell Rhett, as some three thousand South Carolinians watched enthusiastically the proclamation of South Carolina as “a separate, independent nationality.”