Designed for use with the Coast Guard’s black or white web belt, this ornamental buckle is mounted with the rate insignia for a Petty Officer 2nd Class (PO2). Buckles adorned with rate insignia, certification/qualification insignia, and even ship profiles were at one time authorized for wear in the Coast Guard, but they were restricted to everyday work uniforms, a fact reflected in the requirement that all personnel have at least one unadorned brass buckle for wear during inspections or when prescribed by a local Commander.
Revamped uniform regulations that appeared in the mid-1980s were designed to establish a more uniform and professional appearance, and one of the changes was to specify the wear of a standard belt buckle of “unadorned brass or brass colored metal.” This description of the standard buckle eventually was removed from editions in the COMDINST M1020.6 series when the phrase “standard buckle” was understood to be mean unadorned with insignia or other ornamentation.