Plymouth County Fair belt buckles are a popular collector's item

From John Deer to NASCAR to beer brands, Dave Lehner said manufacturers put anything and everything on a buckle.

"It's just endless. Some of the designs are really obscure," he said. "If you've got the money, they basically can make it."

The Town & Country Toy Club took over the task of producing the Plymouth County Fair belt buckle in 1986. Lehner, who serves as the club's president, said numerous themes have graced the pewter face plates, which often honor a service organization or highlight a popular fair activity, such as the demolition derby, carnival and tractor pull.

"There has been a buckle every year since '81," he said as he stood in the club's small white house in the fairgrounds' Pioneer Village pulling belt buckles from years past out of a glass case."We do an all-pewter buckle and one that has color in it."

Each year, the club's 12 members suggest a few themes and then choose one of them. The belt buckles, which are fabricated in Wisconsin, arrive sometime in June.

In 2006, the fair's buckle featured the 4-H emblem, a windmill and a round barn located on the fairgrounds, while 2001 was engraved with the crests of the Iowa State Patrol, Plymouth County Sheriff's Office and Le Mars Police Department. The 2002 buckle pays homage to those who perished in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. A bald eagle is flanked by an American flag.

"It's probably the only year that we didn't do something about the fair," Lehner said.

The 2014 buckle depicts children involved in the fair's horse project tending to horses in an outdoor pen. A second version of the buckle offers some color. A girl's shirt is aqua blue, while two of the horses are brown and tan.

Annually, 150 new collectible buckles are available for sale. The pewter buckles this year will sell for $20, while the colored ones will retail for $25.

"After this past year, out of the 150, we've got eight buckles left," Lehner said of the 2013 design. "The pewter ones are still by far, surprisingly, a little more popular."

The back of each buckle is engraved with a serial number. Collectors can reserve their number ahead of time.

"We go through and pull them out," Lehner said. "If you've had No. 32 for 10 years and I say this year, 'I don't have No. 32,' they kind of get heartbroken on that."

No. 1 and No. 2 are donated and auctioned off at the fair. They've netted up to $1,200 each for the fair, according to Lehner, who is a collector himself and has served on the Plymouth County Fair Board for 18 years.

"I have every year, with some years being multiples," he said. "I've kind of passed this on to my kids and my grandkids. Hopefully I'm going to have a collection of buckles for each one of them. It's getting kind of hard to go back to that 1981. I've got to have six of them."

Some of the early buckles, Lehner said, cost about $100 a piece. Other years have decreased in value. He regularly wears the 1987 Toy Club-themed buckle.

"The face of it is pretty well beat up," he said. "Basically, I wear it every day."