I’m really puzzled! If I wanted to forge a belt buckle I would take an imprint of a genuine, certified original, make an exact mold and reproduce everything exactly as I see it on the original, onto the fake… for example, a proper eagle with an eagle’s head, I would get the feathers to look like the originals, the beak, copy the maker’s stamp, etc. etc. What I don’t understand is… when I look at the pictures of forgeries with their diamond shaped feathers, pigeon heads, badly produced rope, invented makers’ names, things missing, things added… etc etc. why would a forger be so careless… and so stupid, they must be aware that these obvious mistakes will be spotted? On the other hand, it’s also a worry that buckles that have been passed as 100% genuine by experienced collectors, have been judged genuine only because everything looks correct. This means that if a forger does actually decide to reproduce everything exactly as he (or she) sees it on the original, there would be absolutely no way of telling the difference… am I correct with this assumption? Maybe… and this is a scary thought :o( … some bad fakes have been spread about purposely to make the more exact copies look genuine… a sort of "double-bluff"? Apart from carrying out some lab’ tests on metals used, paint, rust, or dirt aging, etc. it would seem to me as a complete novice and new collector, that one can never, ever, be really, really, really 100% certain… I would love to hear what others have to say about this, as it just doesn’t make any sense to go to all the trouble of forging something that doesn’t look like the real thing! Thanks for reading this and if you have any views, answers, advice, etc. please, please let me know… Cheers!