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Old 01-28-2010, 12:21 PM
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Location: Oklahoma City
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Default Help w/ coins/tax tokens and bullet

Hi guys, Newbie here!

I found these items last weekend while Metal Detecting an old 1800's ghost town in Central Oklahoma that was made up of Civil War Veterans. The items in question are two older looking coins or Tax tokens and an older style bullet. The small coin/token looks to have a date on it of maybe 1885? The larger greyish coin has some letters, but I can't make the letters out. The bullet looks newer with the serated style ridge, but I know it's not copper or brass so I thought you guys could give me a good idea on it's age, type, etc. Let me know what you think or if you have seen these items over your years of experience! Thanks for you time and expertise!!!

ohp800max
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Old 01-28-2010, 01:13 PM
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Location: Richmond VA
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You wrote:
> Let me know what you think or if you have seen these items over your years of experience!

I've been a "serious" relic-digger for about 35 years. I'll do what I can to help you correctly identify the three items you posted.

I can't help you about the grey-metal item, except to say it does appear to be either a tax-token or a commercial store-token.

The small brass disc sems to have a hole through its center. If it is a hole (showing through on the other side of the disc), the item seems to be the wick-adjuster "wheel" from a small kerosene/oil lamp. As you know, such lamps were plentiful household items from anytime before the civil war on up into the early 20th-Century ...so it's impossible to know the time-period of such an item unless it has a date or manufacturer's name on it.

Unfortunately, most of your bullet's shape is too smashed for identifying it with any certainty. The tiny parallel ridges in the groove mean it is 1880s or later. Because you gave no measuements, all I can do is estimate its size by comparing it with the size of your fingers and thumbnail. Using that method, it appears to be for a .38-caliber (or perhaps .44-caliber) Revolver pistol bullet. (To help at correctly identifying a bullet, we need to know its VERY-precise measurements.)

Regards,
Pete [P.C. George]
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Old 01-28-2010, 02:07 PM
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PC George,

Good call on the smaller coin shaped object. I didn't think it had a hole in the middle, but it does! Thanks for the info. I think you are correct on the greyish coin shaped object as well. I am trying to detect the area that was once Main St and I know there were shops, grocery stores, etc in this area. Thank you so much for the info!

ohp800max
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Old 01-28-2010, 04:27 PM
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You're welcome, ohp800max. Let me also say, welcome to the Civil War Bullet Forum. The main reason I post here is to help newcomers in this hobby with info from my 35 years of relic-digging and collecting ...just like I was helped by a couple of the old experts way back when I was a rookie relic-digger (mid-1970s). The only way to repay those favors is to pass them forward.

The secondary reason I read this forum is to learn from various experts in other subject-areas than my specialty-area (projectiles). You might enjoy looking through this website's Archive of past posts. I'm grateful to this site's founder/owner for maintaining that Archive.

Regards,
Pete [P.C. George]
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