I often don’t know what I have until I take a closer look. The other day I thought I’d found a small silver ring and a wheat penny. Turned out I didn’t have a wheat penny, and what I thought was a ring was just some shiny scrap in a dirt clod. Oh well.
When I went through what was left in the bag the next day, I took a closer look at a small belt buckle. It had been run over and appeared to be silver plated. Here’s what it looked like after cleaning.
The corrosion and discoloration on the back tells me this is silver plate, but the mark reads: STERLING. I could also see what looked like a registered trademark symbol ® and part of a brand name higher up.
Off I went to Google and found this. It’s a match! But what about the obvious silver plate?
Part of this one is marked BRONZE and appears silver plated. So the buckle piece is silver!
About the company
The Hickock company was founded as a jewelry store in 1909 and expanded in New York as a manufacturer of men’s accessories, especially belts and monogrammed items. The owner died in 1945, and his son took over and turned it into the world’s largest belt manufacturer.
I checked, and the buckle has a monogram. A fancy “A.”
But when was it made?
Perhaps the son registered the trademark as he grew the business. So I looked that up and sure enough, September 1947.
That means the buckle I found was manufactured between 1947 and 1973. In 1973, they would have begun marking sterling items with “.925” to conform to international standards.
Also these
This company is famous for the S. Rae Hickok Professional Athlete of the Year award (1950 – 1976), also known as the Hickock Belt.
Here’s a photo of one of them. Gold and gems. And they made regular-sized ones in gold and silver for athletes as well.
