Worthless lead

[Brian]

There's been a couple of posts about worthless lead. Well my latest site has produced going on a thousand bits over the last month.
Some has been worth digging, most not but it gives an idea of whats been used for hunting in Britain in the last few hundred years.

 

[TerryEastTexas]

Well Brian there's lead with a small " l " and there is lead with a large " L ". You got the big " L " there. Congrats

 

[Brian]

The large ball (lead over iron so they could get a fairly good fit) seems to be a 'Sling' to fit a breech loading gun of about 1550.
Gun types (large to small) are basilisk,bombard,double cannon,cannon,curtall,cannon perier,demi-cannon,portpiece,culverin,demi-culverin,b.culverin,serpentine,saker,minion,falcon,falconet,robinet,flanker,base, SLING,fowler,hailshot piece,mortar,pot gun,organ and my favourite...the murderer.
Only the third cannonball I've found. The iron is not the problem as the round shape breaks through the discrimination but then you get clever and trace the shape out and decide its rubbish.
Nice thing was that I had a Roman coin out of the same hole a couple of inches further down.

 

[hoser]

Thats a nice collection of projectiles. And to find a Roman coin with it is just icing on the cake.

 

[johncooper]

I've found lots of lead also, but nothing as neat as what you have. How did you mange to identify all of it?

 

[Brian]

Hi John
Its just a case of find a Saxon coin, buy the identifying book, Roman coin, cannonball, token,Viking etc do the same. You end up with a shelf full but at least when you come to sell you know what you have got and its rough value. Otherwise its rip off time at the dealers. E-Bay can be a great resource for I.D.ing finds but even then they might not know what their selling.

 

[Brian]

To go with the cannoball how about a bronze cannon ?
Trouble is its a childs toy. They got banned in Victorian times as so many children had either shot their brother or overfilled the barrel with gunpowder and caused a minor explosion.
This is the first I've found not exploded.