✅ SOLVED Cannon Shell

Neko

Newbie
Dec 6, 2016
2
1
Massachusetts
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Hello. While cleaning some of my grandfather's belongings I found what I thought was an artillery shell. Rather should I say it found me. It rolled and fell off a shelf about 12' on a concrete flooring scaring me half to death as I thought it was live. Upon no bang I went back to see it was empty. I am by no means a military buff and know nothing about it. I spent a few hours browsing the net and best I can figure is it goes to a Hotchkiss Revolving Cannon however upon some research it seems to be much bigger than the shell that cannon takes so I am at a loss again. Any information about its likely origin, history, value or anything else would be grateful. Thanks.

It is:
Length: 14.75"
Head: 2.5"
Mouth: 1.75" -2" (it's been crushed, see pics)
Neck Circumference: 6"
Body Circumference: 7"
Body Diameter: 2.25"
Primer slot: 3/8"

I apologize if I got any of these terms wrong.

Taken a few pics. In one of them along the edge of the head/rim it looks like there might of been some numbers but it seems illogical they would have stamped anything that close to edge.

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Welcome to Tnet, the coding for your attached photos need some work for us to be able to see them.
 

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Welcome to TreasureNet !

Hopefully I was able to fix your Pics
 

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French 3 Pound Hotchkiss (47mm) I think, I can't find one online anywhere with that particular headstamp, I want to say WW1 era, but I'll have to look some more to be sure
 

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I found the headstamp, there should be another mark on the right between Hotchkiss and Paris, that may be worn down. It is from Hotchkiss et Cie, and from what I can find it seems to be a fairly early one from pre WW1. You may want to find an artillery collectors forum and post it there, International Ammunition Association would be the one I can think of offhand. It's a really neat find!
 

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From what I found the 6-pounder was a 57mm, which was too large for the mouth of the casing (rather than shell, for Neko). But I could be wrong.
By the way Welcome to Treasurenet Neko!
 

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Thanks for quick replies. I'm not familiar with this kind of bbcode just used the default up-loader. Thank you Jeff for fixing it. Now that I know what it is I can go further. I'll certainly check out IAA and maybe update my original post here if it amounts to anything exciting.
 

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