Featured Concho Belt

I found this concho belt at a local estate sale. It was tossed in a bin with a bunch of men's belts. It is unmarked, but acid tests sterling.
As you can see, the conchos are stamped out and not hand tooled.
The back straps are copper. The leather is in great shape. I lightly polished it, as it was tarnished. I paid $10.
I'm thinking 1980s-90s. Any thoughts?

 

There have been a number of companies selling the dies and pre stamped conchos since the 1960's.... https://www.durangosilver.com/silver-stamps.html

 

the copper gives it that realistic look....... nice for the price !!!

 

As I look around online, most of the concho belts have copper straps.
It kind of threw me off when I first saw it, because I was not too familiar with concho belts, and the copper straps seemed odd. I thought they were brass. I guess it was a quick way for the maker to knock out a belt to sell to the shops here in New Mexico!
But it is sterling, and I'm very happy to have it for the price!

 

Nice! I love old belts and buckles.

 

Nice find! I have an estate sale super cheap concho belt I Always suspected was unmarked silver. Never bothered testing it but maybe I will now. I actually wear it sometimes.

I was at a sale once and I found a very fancy looking belt in a pile of other nice but moderately priced belts. They were like $10-$30 or so each. Looked closer and realized it was a Vogt buckle and loop set, Sterling, 10k, and rubies, on good leather. Paid $25-$30ish. It’s one of the ones that retails at like $2k. Good luck getting near that for it but still, a cool find.

 

.

 

Concho belts are in all the expensive shops here in the Southwest.
Lots of Old Pawn belts are out there too, for $$$$.
I love the NA jewelry, but never paid much attention to the belts. I will pay attention to them now.
They are very stylish!

 

I started wearing a ring and chain within the last year or so. Before that the only “flair” I ever had was fun belts. Never crazy of flamboyant but I liked a little color or something interesting. The concho belt was a tad much for me but I started to dig it. The “old pawn” style buckles are very cool! Definitely big bucks in some of those! I always check the belts at any sale or thrift store for silver. One place most people don’t think to look. Like you said though lots of people visited the SW and brought one home.

 

Great find for $10. May I see how the strap is attached to the buckle?

 

Hard to date but IMO (which honestly is just my opinion) tests as silver, unstamped, copper loops and strap isn’t fixed-I’d give it some age-and guess 60s-early 80s.whatever-it was a steal.

 

Thanks for the information! I was stoked when I got it home and it tested sterling!
I was never much of a belt person, but I am going to wear this and see if I like it. Maybe it will be my new statement piece!