The Cannonball Chronicles

[Michigan Badger]

I just weighed the ball and it's exactly 4 lbs. 6.8 oz.

It's about 3 and 1/4 inches in diameter (maybe a little less).

Okay all you fine southerners and corn fed northerners...what do ya think? Is this a REAL canon ball or not?

If you think not, please let me know exactly why.

I hope I don't have to take more pictures, I'm mainly an office worker these days and standing out in the parking lot taking pictures of such a heavy ball causes me to be in danger of losing weight.

Have a good UN.

M, Bad-ger

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Diving for Pleasure and Treasure - Grab it through Amazon!

[TheCannonballGuy]

Re: Canon Ball HELP - Update Ball a FAKE!

I feel I must add some comments in regard to the posted Update ...for BK and for MichiganBadger...

I myself would not refer to it as a Fake. In the relic-market, that term is properly used to refer only to an item which is a DELIBERATELY-DECEPTIVE reproduction of a genuine relic.

Another such relic-market term is Postwar ...meaning the item is both genuine and old - but not quite old ENOUGH. ;-) Example: an 1880s-made eagle button or State Seal button.

There are also a few items which the relic-market properly refers to as Restrikes. These are items made in the late 19th-century or 20th-century and STRUCK FROM ORIGINAL civil-war-era dies (or, molds, in the case of bullets). Example of a die-struck Restrike: the Stokes-Kirk 20th-century restrikes of yankee hat-insignia. They are VERY "dangerous" to civil-war relic collectors. I own a gorgeous set of Artilleryman's crossed-cannons hat insignia, made from sheet-brass (just like the originals), and the face is (of course) a PERFECT match with the original. The key to identifying many (but perhaps not ALL) of the Stokes-Kirk restrikes is the attachments on the back. Mine are soldered, as they should be ...but use long thin iron wires instead of short loops.
..............
The "cast" restrikes (using original molds) are exemplified by the 1880s T. Miller (of Houston Texas) remakes of the exact "type" of Confederate buttons he himself made and sold during the war.
Examples of other "cast" Restrikes:
Unfortunately, some very unscrupulous owners of original NON-DUG bullet-molds from the civil-war era have been casting up bullets/minies with those molds in recent years. The form of the bullet is therefore a perfect match with the civil-war originals, of course... but the patina on the lead is not. Those guys (so far) don't seem to have figured out how to duplicate the THICK hard patina which 140-year-old dug lead usually has developed. Therefore some type of paint or acid-treatment is used ...which can get the color "right" ...but the patina tends to be rather thin. The test I use is a fingernail. If the minie is real, a fingernail almost always won't hurt it. But if some mere fingernail-scraping makes a shiny lead streak, the minie is ...umm... "questionable" ...and I won't buy it at ANY price.

Now, getting back to what to call the Minnesota Field ball...
It (apparently) was not made last year by somebody with the idea of deceiving potential buyers. A think a "general" category-name for such items would be a "Misidentification." The ball, however old it may be, was identified to buyers as a genuine historical CANNONBALL ...and it isn't. I think many of us here at Treasurenet.com have very recently seen another item which best fits in the Misidentification category: a dug-up brass relic now known for certain to be an 1898-era carriage's Whiffletree-Tip. We also know there's a civil-war relic dealer selling one online as a flagpole-tip (for $225). Would it be fair to now say it is a Fake? personally, I think not, because it doesn't fit the relic-market's definition for a Fake.

MichiganBadger, a FRIENDLY word of caution for you, if I may. If you post a claim that the Minnesota Field ball's seller sold you a Fake item, he might be able to sue you for harming his business-reputation with "published Libel." Better, then, to call the ball a Misrepresentation. Then you'd be safe (I think), because (I think) it is legal burden is on the seller to correctly identify what he is advertising for sale.)

Now, lastly, you asked me what I think the Minnesota Field ball actually is. Now that you have discovered the "silvery" area on it ...I don't think it's a mill-ball/ore-crusher. There's no need to "adjust" the weight of such balls by adding inside them. (They're already heavy enough to do the crushing or burnishing they're intended for.) But COUNTERWEIGHTS can need to be weight-adjusted in order to fulfill the delicate function of counterbalancing something. Your abll might be a farm's well-pump counterweight.

Come to think of it, I'm going to add a second final note. ;-) I've seen that some unscrupulous relic-sellers have managed to put "the right color" onto iron. They coat it with a varnish-stain ...or with the desired color of shoe-polish. is the brown color of your E-Bay ball caused by a (genuinely) rusty surface ...or from a colored coating? If it's the latter, then it would fit the definition of a Fake. (The artificially-created coloring would be an intention to deceive.) But even then, you'd still have to prove in Court that the guy you bought it from is the person who put the coloring onto it. Now, for the present-day, because you say he has a very good E-Bay seller-record, I'd guess he was as unaware about the ball as you were at the time. So, in view of all of this, I'm quite glad to hear you only paid $26 for it. : )

And if that E-Bay seller sooner-or-later advertises ANOTHER such ball... well, I can only say, you'll know something very important about his true intentions.

Chalk the current situation up as being a comparatively inexpensive education about "Caveat Emptor." Which, for anyone here who doesn't know, is a saying (in Latin) dating all the way back to the Roman Empire ...and it means "Let the Buyer beware."

Regards,
TheCannonballGuy (Pete George)

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Treasure of Victoria Peak - Grab it through Amazon!

[Smartin]

Re: Canon Ball HELP - Update Ball a FAKE!

Badger,
What an ordeal! I don't know a thing about cannon balls, but your's made for some good reading.Sorry about your misfortune, maybe the confederates had some unknown and undocumented cannons that made it out west ? ground minerlization will cause a natural hard anodizing on some metals through time and with certain conditions, breaking away this coating will sometimes give false representations of the actual metal underlayment.

Smartin
PS: sounds like cannonballguy knows his stuff

 

[nhbenz]

Re: Canon Ball HELP - Update Ball a FAKE!

Had I found that in field I definately would have figured it to be be a cannon ball. I wasn't familiar with the other uses of a big heavy metal ball. I'm sorry it appears that it isn't a cannon ball, but glad you weren't into it for too much $... However it would make a great paperweight that you can tell your co-workers whatever you want about it . (so long as you don't re-sell it under false pretenses) Happy Hunting. -Ben

 

[tinpan]

Re: Canon Ball HELP - Update Ball a FAKE!

hey, i hope that it is a canon ball but i found a ball like this under as old farm house many years ago and the ball turned out to be an early crushing device for crushing rock. the device worked somethink like this, first 2 or more of these size ball were placed in a large iron bucket that was rotated by a horse and dray. then the pieces of rock where placed in the bucket and the movement of the balls in the bucket, broke the rock up, for a more useable size e.g. removing gold from hard quartz

tinpan p.s ball i had dates about 1850s

 

[EDDE]

Re: Canon Ball HELP - Update Ball a FAKE!

your still the man,zeb i had a feeling.....

 

[Michigan Badger]

Re: The Canon Ball Chronicles

Well the cannonball saga rolls on and yesterday was so interesting! Some say it definitely isn't a cannonball and about as many say it could be and few insist that it is a real cannonball.

See, when this all started I sent off lots of emails (some with photos) to about every cannonball dealer on the web. I'm still getting replies from many of them.

One person wrote and told me he had in his possession several just like the one I show here. He considers them to be real.

Are these real or not? the answer is YES! The real question really is--real what?

So, take heart all you cannonball diggers and ebay buyers, everything in it's own way is real.

Now, if that statement above makes sense to you, would you please explain it to me?

Okay. It finally turns out that this ball is MOST LIKELY a real genuine ore ball.