Silver is right at $25 (spot price) recently. That means you’ll pay around $35 or just over a dollar a gram from a supply house for the raw material at today’s pricing. 14.2 X 28 grams to the ounce (31 grams and change for troy ounces) works out to right at $400 in materials (deducting a bit of overage for leather and findings). You didn’t just buy the belt, you practically stole it for that price.
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Yes, that’s what I was thinking!! Sometimes you must rely are your gut instincts and common sense. You rock!! Thanks again.
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A beautiful concho!
And welcome to New Mexico!
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Yeah, hard to find them but worth it when you do. 
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It’s truly the land of enchantment! I love it. Thank you!
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Here’s a photo of the Patrick and Anita Ohlinger concha belt I bought for my wife back in the 90’s. Buckled together, the sections can be combined and worn as a belt. Individually, the sections can be worn as boot conchas.
Patrick said the conchas for the belt had been cast from their own hand made masters. The casting is excellent. Zero visible porosity anywhere on the surface. The stampwork on the masters is nothing short of amazing. Really fine example of Patrick and Anita’s artistry,meticulous work, and precise attention to detail.
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Absolutely stunning!!! I did some research and found some of their work. True masters at their craft. Thank you for sharing… now I need to add something similar to my starting collection.
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I’ve been pondering on reusing the 2 concho belts I have=one sterling,no leather,15 pieces joined by textured jump rings & the other concho&butterflies w/small flat copper strips on the backs. don’t like just having em…want to wear .
have enough heavily textured bison hide (dark choc.& med.tan) to go as wide & long as I want but the “inspiration” is too vague…sigh
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Clever idea to do the photoshop overlay!
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Thanks @OrbitOrange. In the early 90’s a large belt manufacturer came to New Mexico, bought up buckles and Conchas from Southwestern artists, took the pieces to Taiwan, and had them copied verbatim. A group of artists including myself learned about it, got together and sued the company for copyright infringement. Early on in the case, I used the layers function which had just been introduced in Photoshop to overlay photos of the originals and copies in just this way, to prove in court that the manufacturer had outright stolen the designs, making mold copies of the original items. You can read a little bit about the case here: https://www.ganoksin.com/ftp/rogers.pdf
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@mmrogers Thank you for sharing the information about that case. That was quite interesting to read.
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While I am not nearly as knowledgeable on non-Kakiki belts, I’ve seen hundreds, if not thousands, of them over the years and I would say this is authentic. I do not believe it to be vintage and, I agree, the conchos are die-cast.
However, it is sterling silver and leather and is a lovely representation of a traditional Native American belt. Wear it with pride.
As to whether you were ‘ripped off’ or not, that is impossible to say since you did not mention what you paid for it. There are no stones so that is not a factor. I recommend you calculate value by tking the weight of the silver @ $23 per ounce (today’s spot price) plus a small amount for the leather (no more than $50) and a standard retail markup of between 150%-200% (depending on how many middle men were involved) should put you in the value ballpark and you can decide if you paid a fair price.
Good luck.
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Thanks for your input. It’s appreciated!! 
