Carolina Tom
Gold Member
I was able to slip out for 4 hours today. I went back to the honey hole for a little coin shooting.
I dug 76 coins, ten of which were wheaties, and one Canadian.
Here are the silver coins in the dirt.
I got a 1950 Rosie and a beat 192X Mercury dime. Ordinarily, that would be the highlight, however today, I stumbled upon a white 31.7 gram piece of lead. Turns out it’s a CW era, Enfield bullet!
I’m really excited about this find. It still has some of the wooden plug in it. I know this because I tried to clean it out with a little knife! Oops.
Thanks for looking and best to you during the holidays.
YTD silver coins: 80
EDIT: CannonBallGuy said the following.
“... it is definitely a fired civil war era Enfield Minie-bullet. More specifically, it is a .577-caliber bullet, made for use in the British Model-P1853 Enfield Rifle. Also more specifically, the presence of a "plug cavity" in its base means it was manufactured in Britain (by a bullet-making machine press), and it traveled on a Blockade Runner through the yankee naval blockade to the Confederacy. If you found it in North Carolina is most probably arrived here at the port of Wilmington NC, protected by Fort Fisher.
The cork-shaped wooden plug in its base-cavity (which is why it is called a "plug cavity") was made of boxwood. Sometimes the boxwood plug survives nearly or completely intact, due to being almost surrounded by lead, which is toxic to the bacteria which normally would eat wood left laying on the ground. It might shrink a bit as it dries, and fall out. If it does, look to see if there is a number or letter mark in the flat bottom of the base-cavity. The most common Enfield minie base-mark is "57" (for the caliber), but there are also letters, and combinations, such as L, L1, L2, P, and others...”
I dug 76 coins, ten of which were wheaties, and one Canadian.
Here are the silver coins in the dirt.
I got a 1950 Rosie and a beat 192X Mercury dime. Ordinarily, that would be the highlight, however today, I stumbled upon a white 31.7 gram piece of lead. Turns out it’s a CW era, Enfield bullet!
I’m really excited about this find. It still has some of the wooden plug in it. I know this because I tried to clean it out with a little knife! Oops.
Thanks for looking and best to you during the holidays.
YTD silver coins: 80
EDIT: CannonBallGuy said the following.
“... it is definitely a fired civil war era Enfield Minie-bullet. More specifically, it is a .577-caliber bullet, made for use in the British Model-P1853 Enfield Rifle. Also more specifically, the presence of a "plug cavity" in its base means it was manufactured in Britain (by a bullet-making machine press), and it traveled on a Blockade Runner through the yankee naval blockade to the Confederacy. If you found it in North Carolina is most probably arrived here at the port of Wilmington NC, protected by Fort Fisher.
The cork-shaped wooden plug in its base-cavity (which is why it is called a "plug cavity") was made of boxwood. Sometimes the boxwood plug survives nearly or completely intact, due to being almost surrounded by lead, which is toxic to the bacteria which normally would eat wood left laying on the ground. It might shrink a bit as it dries, and fall out. If it does, look to see if there is a number or letter mark in the flat bottom of the base-cavity. The most common Enfield minie base-mark is "57" (for the caliber), but there are also letters, and combinations, such as L, L1, L2, P, and others...”
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Congrats on hitting 80 too my silver sucking friend!
