An arms expert is convinced a collection of Boer War items found on a rubbish tip once belonged to fabled British-Australian soldier Harry "Breaker" Morant.

"It's stunning," military valuer Ian Skennerton told 7.30.

"It's everything an historian could dream of seeing."

Amongst the items recently found at the tip in Tenterfield, in regional New South Wales, was a leather bandolier, a 1901-design Australian flag and a penny with the name Edwin Henry Morant engraved on it.

The Australian flag and leather bandolier found with items believed to have belonged to Breaker Morant. ( Supplied )

The penny is on a leather string and, according to Mr Skennerton, had been damaged by a bullet of Boer War vintage.

He's convinced this was the penny Morant wore around his neck when he was executed by a British firing squad in 1902 for the murder of Boer prisoners.

"The bullet has gone just over the bottom of it, which would have been just over his heart when he said, 'Shoot straight you bastards'," Mr Skennerton said.

This penny, which bears the name Edwin Henry Morant, is thought to have been damaged when Morant was executed. ( Supplied )

Collection priceless, says expert

The person who discovered the items in a hessian bag at the Tenterfield tip last year wants to remain anonymous, and asked that he only be referred to as Mr Collector.

7.30 was present when he showed them to Mr Skennerton for the first time.

Mr Collector said he initially did not know what he'd stumbled across.

"I just thought I'd scored a good bag full of bloody military shit," he said.

"The bag was chockers. Ninety per cent of it was a rat's nest — damp, smelly, stinky paperwork."

Mr Skennerton said the collection is priceless.

"You can't put a value on this," he said.

Morant's lawyer believed to have kept possessions

The execution of Lieutenants Morant and Peter Handcock has been steeped in controversy, with supporters arguing they were only following orders in what was a bitter guerrilla war.

It's believed their trial lawyer, Major James Thomas, brought Morant's possessions back from South Africa to Tenterfield after the war. He died in 1942.

Breaker Morant was executed in 1902 for murdering Boer prisoners. ( Supplied: Australian War Memorial )

"These items have clearly been picked up from one of the properties Major Thomas has in Tenterfield. He had no family of his own," said James Unkles, a lawyer and campaigner for Morant's pardon.

"The people who threw them out clearly didn't know how valuable these items were."

Mr Unkles arranged for the flag to be restored at Melbourne University's Centre for Cultural Materials Conservation.

"It's got inscriptions on it written by Major Thomas and also other soldiers who attended the funeral," he said.

"The inscriptions talk about these men being scapegoats of the British Empire."

The collection also includes a cigarette case and machete scabbard engraved with the initials "HM", the personal papers of Thomas, and books signed by one of the founders of Federation, Sir Henry Parkes.

The Australian War Memorial said it cannot verify the items' history without a detailed analysis.

Mr Collector is in the process of donating the items to the Tenterfield museum.

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