What kind of bullet?

[champagne86]

Found this on a beach in Warwick Rhode Island can anyone help me out I know it's old and has never been fired

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Treasure of Victoria Peak - Grab it through Amazon!

[fyrffytr1]

Without a size (diameter and length) and weight you won't be able to get an accurate ID but my guess would be a 69 cal. Minie ball.

 

[skeeterd]

How do you know it has never been fired? Is it missing the rifling marks?

 

[champagne86]

Without a size (diameter and length) and weight you won't be able to get an accurate ID but my guess would be a 69 cal. Minie ball.

Does it look old to you?

 

[champagne86]

How do you know it has never been fired? Is it missing the rifling marks?

I was told by a friend who knows about guns and ammo. But other then that I don't know much

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Actually, under super-magnification I can see enough to say with certainty that it has indeed been fired ...and it is a civil war era US .58-caliber Williams Regulation minie-ball. The Williams type was one of the very few which had "true flat-bottomed" (a.k.a. "square-bottomed") body grooves -- and it was only made in .58-caliber.

Firing a minie-ball often causes the body grooves to get "squeezed" a bit. Looking closely at the one you found, under super-magnification, I can see the "squeezed" effect, which makes the body grooves look a bit narrower than they are on an unfired one. Also, I can see slight rifling-groove marks on yours.

For confirmation of the ID, compare your bullet closely with the one in the photo below.

I'm sure somebody is going to ask, how did a civil war era bullet get used on a beach in Rhode Island? The answer is rifle target practice for the raw recruits. A beach was a good place for that, because civilians were less likely to be able to get in the way of the shooting without being noticed.

 

[champagne86]

Actually, under super-magnification I can see enough to say with certainty that it has indeed been fired ...and it is a civil war era US .58-caliber Williams Regulation minie-ball. The Williams type was one of the very few which had "true flat-bottomed" (a.k.a. "square-bottomed") body grooves -- and it was only made in .58-caliber.

Firing a minie-ball often causes the body grooves to get "squeezed" a bit. Looking closely at the one you found, under super-magnification, I can see the "squeezed" effect, which makes the body grooves look a bit narrower than they are on an unfired one. Also, I can see slight rifling-groove marks on yours.

For confirmation of the ID, compare your bullet closely with the one in the photo below.

I'm sure somebody is going to ask, how did a civil war era bullet get used on a beach in Rhode Island? The answer is rifle target practice for the raw recruits. A beach was a good place for that, because civilians were less likely to be able to get in the way of the shooting without being noticed.

Thank you for the help. Could it be worth anything?

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Simple answer:
$1 to $10, depending on where you sell it ...but most probably, a couple of dollars.

Detailed answer:
The value of any particular thing in this world is set by four factors:
1- Rarity
2- Quality/Condition
3- Demand versus supply (how many people want it, versus how many of it are available)
4- How many are available on the "local" market

1- Rarity rating: Your civil war bullet is one of the most common versions of Yankee bullets. Relic-diggers have found over 10,000 of that specific version.
2- Quality/condition rating: It is fired but shows no significant damage.
3- Demand vs. Supply rating: A significant percentage of the American population has an interest in owning civil war relics ...but that number of people is smaller than the number of civil war bullets available. (In Economics, that is called "Oversupply.")
4- Local (Rhode Island) Market rating: At a civil war relic show (like a gun show) here in Virginia, dug-up civil war yankee bullets are extremely common, and thus sell for $1 to $2. (Many of the version you dug are for sale on Ebay at $2 each.) But if you offer your civil war bullet for sale at a fleamarket or yard sale in Rhode Island, you might be able to find at least one person there who'd give you about $10 for it. However, if you'd dug up 20 such bullets, it'd take you a very long time to get $10 apiece for them.

 

[Old Dude]

Value certainly is in the eye of the beholder....I am quite certain $1000 would leave my CW era bullet still in My possession!