There were, apparantly, "tons" of stuff intended for the Confederacy that never made it out of Bermuda. Even so, as a collector, I wouldn't consider those items any less valuable than the same items that may have sat out the war in a depot somewhere. I would consider the items as "Confederate", either way. In fact, to me, the history of those Bermuda items is just as interesting, if not more so.

Supposedly there are differences in the British snake buckles produced after the CW war. One difference is that they are much thicker. I doubt anyone, however, knows exactly when this change occurred. And, the snake buckles were produced long before the CW war began, too. So just because they are of the correct design, doesn't mean that they were used in the CW war or even that they were in America at all.

For the collector, the only way to really know if any item was Confederate used is to have great provenance with it, except for perhaps those items known to have been made *during* the war *in* the Confederacy and *only* in the Confederacy (for example, a Columbus Firearms Revolver). Almost any European item of militaria of the period could have been used most anywhere in the world. There were several conflicts going on at the time (including next door in Mexico) and many countries were buying military goods from Europe in large quantities.

Also to be considered is the fact that Europeans were still arming and equipping their own militaries at the time, too.