I got this plaque at a local Civil War show today. Unfortunately I had to pay real money for it and while it is kind of nice I was wondering what you think it is worth. It is from Monaco and it is warped from heat. Was heat used to destroy these? The filligreed insert has turned green so I don't know what it is made of. Probably has some copper in it but I thought most were silver? I just want to know if i paid too much for it.

I also saw at the show a nice Mills Slot machine for $1600 and several Ivory chips but I wasn't going to pay $70 each. One guy had a chip for $70 that he said was ivory but it was some type of plastic. You could see the scratches on it and no crosshatching like on real ivory. It also had a too perfect design - like it was stamped in, which it was.

I also got two poker chip I didn't have, two sterling thimbles (paid too much!), a sterling locket(paid silver value) and a Gold ring that looked really good for $5. I looked at it with the loupe and it was marked "Solidgold" but not stamped otherwise. I put it down then went back and looked again. Despite not being marked it just looked too good to not take a chance on. I figured if it was fake I am out $5. If it was real I made $50. Ten to one payback? I am all in for that! When I got home the 10K acid didn't mark it at all and the 14K acid just barely cleaned the surface. Home run!

The Civil War show started at 9 and there was a privately run estate sale that also started at 9 but was in the opposite direction (45 minutes apart) I was going to pass on the estate sale but figured that anything I wanted at the Civil War sale would still be there and hour later. Glad I went! I got there at 8:20 and there were already people inside. They had advertised coins and stamps for sale so I was really interested. When I got in the first thing I did was to ask about the coins. They had been sold early in the morning. They pointed the way to the stamps. Most of the stuff was foreign stamps and first day covers. But there was one envelope that had some American stamps in it and they were uncancelled. Mostly six and eight cent stamps. I offered $5 for the package figuring I could maybe double my money. They accepted and when I got home I counted over $35 in stamps in the package. Another home run!

The fun is in the hunt!!