Featured Belt I wear as necklace

I got this belt very cheap as part of a bundle. The seller said she had been told it was silver, but she hadn’t tested it herself and hadn’t found any marks.

I’m a bit dubious myself about it being silver, but it sure makes a fun necklace!

Posting in part because I would love to have a clue as to age and maker/place of origin, and partly because there are some extremely tiny real silver belts out there that some of you might get a much better price on if sold as a necklace

 

Conch bird belt, SW/Mexico.. example. https://www.ebay.com/itm/275143002306

 

Very doubtful that's silver.

Debora

 

I de-saturated any color and brightened a bit, then enlarged it 2X.....have you 'louped' it for any tiny marks on the front???? It "Looks" like there might be a couple, but that's just ME!!!! Works very PRETTY for a necklace!!!

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I don’t think it’s even silver plated. Sarcasm is hard to make clear with text, sometimes. This was so cheap I don’t remember exactly what I paid for it. But now I’m regretting not buying a teeny-tiny (20”) belt that *was* silver (and only four times the price I paid for this one) because it would have made a spectacular necklace!

 

Wow! That looks exactly the same, except for color, even has the same number of birds. Mine doesn’t have any marks though.

 

It is probably what is known as "Nickel Silver" or "German Silver", among other names. A reasonably convincing faux silver, that contains no actual silver. Still, a lot of attractive Southwestern pieces are made with this. I think "Alpaca Silver" is also this same material.

 

I found one from another brand that also looks identical: https://www.ebay.com/itm/125338290661

I’m going to have to look closer and see if the hook might have been replaced, but I suspect it’s a knock-off of a knock-off from the 1970’s. Which is ok for a fun necklace that cost maybe $10

 

I like that takes me back to groovy days.

 

I have one very similar in copper that I bought in 1978 at the Kennecott Copper mine in Utah. Mine was made by the Utes. Same construction and variation of thunderbird.