Farm Finds and Perhaps a Cannonball?

mysteriousnesss

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Newburyport, MA
I hunted an old farm in Massachusetts yesterday and came up with an interesting assortment of finds. Several Indians, the monogrammed silver lid to something, an Effanbee heart shaped doll tag from the 30's, a Marine Corp button of unknown age, a few other odds and ends, and then what I think might be a cannonball. Any insight would be greatly appreciated. I should mention that the "cannonball" was about a foot deep and kept alternating between ferrous and a solid 15 on my Equinox. I normally wouldn't have dug it but I can't recall ever getting a signal like that so I gave it a shot. I'd say it weighs around 4 or 5 pounds and is about 2-3 inches across. Let me know what you all think.
 

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In spite of rust, see if you can find a seam around it, classic for a colonial era cannon ball.

Found two a long time ago with a home made detector, similar in size to yours.

Tom
 
In spite of rust, see if you can find a seam around it, classic for a colonial era cannon ball.

Found two a long time ago with a home made detector, similar in size to yours.

Tom

I'm nervous to try electrolysis on it because I've read that projectiles this size could actually be Revolutionary War grenades.
 
Looks like a cannon ball to me! The USMC button looks like one I found a few months ago. VA-REB was able to narrow down the date of mine to 1860-1870s. If you post the backmark and diameter in the ID forum someone may be able to help date yours.

Awesome finds!


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Love cannon balls and artillery. If you know anyone who would have access to an x-ray you can always pass it through to see if it's hollow or not to think about electrolysis. Might be hard with the pitting, but fuse holes are rather large and should be easy to find on it if you look it over.
 
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