Belt Buckles-Pewter?

[dieguy59]

Went to a car swap meet this weekend with my brother. I had heard that some belt buckles were made of pewter. I was seeing quite a few laying around. When I found quite a large stack of cheap ones I started checking them. Some didn"t bend and had grinding marks on the back which I assumed made them some kind of pot metal, others bent easily but no crackling and then there were the ones that gave all signs that they were pewter. So my question is, does pewter HAVE to crackle when bent or is that just for the really high tin content pewter?
Thanks in advance for any assistance.

[runfiverun]

tin crackles.
pewter is usually marked too.
a soft lead belt buckle would be of no value to anyone.

[Shiloh]

Belt buckles and ornamental objects can be almost any alloy. Pewter is stamped pewter.
Usually 90% to 97+% tin. copper and antimony make up the rest. It may also contain bismuth or lead.

If used as mugs or anything in contact with food or beverage, no lead is allowed.
It'll be marked if it is, or is supposed to be marked. It is usually a darker gray if it contains lead.

Shiloh

[dieguy59]

Thanks for the input. There are no marking regarding alloy on any of them. I had to rely on the bend test. The soft ones would still usable as unknown lead wouldn't they?

[Guesser]

I recently came into possession of about 700 buckles that were cast and plated in 2003/2004. I'm melting them down, cleaning the steel fittings and the thin brass(?) plating out. They melt at a relatively low temp and cast into Lee and Saeco ingots really nice. I asked around and was told that they were probably 92.5% tin, 6% antimony and 1.5% copper.
The buckles are heavy and do not bend, three of them will make a fat 1 pound ingot. I think it is good stuff, especially for the price.