Trophy belt buckles: The highly-prized currency of cowboy culture

Bull riding is an eight-second argument between man and nature. Nature usually wins. [CHEERING] 40 men, all tougher than the leather on John Wayne's boots, gathered in Fort Worth this past spring for the Professional Bull Riders World Championship.

Look at him! Look at him! Look at him! Oh, no!

It's a chance at glory, money, and most of all, this gold belt, buckle says 2016 Winner Cooper Davis. I'm wearing the 2016 PBR World Championship buckle. It's the buckle that means the most to me. You're really sacrificing your body for the buckle. Yeah, you are. I mean, I've broken so many bones. I broke my neck, my collarbone, had total reconstructive shoulder surgeries.

Cooper gets the sack-- needs to get out of there. But at the end of the day, I wouldn't change a thing.

From bull riding to barrel racing, trophy buckles are the currency of cowboy culture. Each tells a story of grit, accomplishment, and honor. I talk about the code of the West. When you put on your buckle, it isn't a costume. It's not a uniform. There's a responsibility and an understanding that you can be trusted, and your word means something. [WHITESNAKE, "HERE I GO AGAIN"]

Flint Rasmussen earned his gold buckle with a microphone and a barrel as one of the field's top rodeo clowns. If I'd have taken my hat off in that clip, I had a little side feather.

And somewhere between the jokes and the dirt, he became one of the sport's great observers. Can anyone wear a belt buckle? I think anybody can wear a buckle. But when you put it on, you need to understand your buckle probably isn't the same as ours. And we know that. You're wearing a buckle right now. I am. And I noticed it has Steamboat, the horse that represents Wyoming. I know you didn't win that buckle, but I know that you have a sense of pride in the state. So it means something, and I respect that.

The cowpokes are shooting for $100,000 in prize money. Just the thing to pay off old hospital Bills.

The exact origin of the rodeo trophy buckle is hard to lasso, but we know it dates back to the 1920s, right around the same time Levi's added belt loops to its 501 jeans and began awarding its own buckles. The bigger the prize, the bigger the buckle. Hell of a ride. Let's get you paid.

Hollywood would take it from there, popularizing the Western buckle for dramatic-- Ah.

--and comedic effect. That's some buckle you got there. Thank you, sir. Some people think the bigger the buckle, the more it means. That is not the case. So bigger isn't better? Bigger is not necessarily better. It's the meaning.

Some of the finest buckles are forged here at Montana Silversmiths. Think of it as Tiffany's for those who wake up at 5:00 AM to feed the horses. Their workshop in Columbus, Montana, turns out a full line of fashion buckles and fine jewelry. But it's the championship buckles that carry the weight of gold and a century-long tradition. This particular figure on this buckle, I probably had 80 hours in carving that figure. You can see I've got every individual hair on that bull. And it really brings it to life. It does, yes.

Master engraver, Justin Deacon, designs every championship buckle along with his son, Travis. A big thing in our engraving world is flow. All things flow. Scrolls flow. Designs flow. Everything flows. Machine isn't going to recreate flow. You can glean a lot from a person from what's on that belt buckle. Cowboy business card. Yeah, yeah. So, yeah.

The craft takes years to learn, decades to master, and is getting harder to pass on. It takes a massive amount of dedication and frustration.

We're always trying to get new people to come in. Man, it's tough. Nobody really wants anything to do with it.

They're most ornate buckles can cost as much as a new pickup truck. This year's, for the Professional Bull Riders World Champion, is a $60,000 showpiece of gold, silver, and diamonds.

The dream has become a reality.

It would go to 20-year-old John Crimber, who weathered 8 seconds of horns, hooves, and havoc to win the Super Bowl of bull riding. I saw you up there with a million dollar check. What means more to you right now-- that check or this buckle? This buckle. We love it. And this is it right here. It's showing how much I love it.

Among this elite group of cowboys, there's a joke with a grain of truth. I put my pants on one leg at a time like everyone else. I just hold them up with a gold buckle. [LIVELY COUNTRY MUSIC]