A story of a single find: cannon ball

By Dmitry Nuzhenko

Cannon balls are not rare to find. In US they usually date back to the Civil War, in Europe, they are results of the Napoleon's conquest wars.

This ball was small, only seventy five millimeters in diameter. The site where it was found was trashed with ferrous junk, from rusty nails to modern agricultural machinery parts. I know my detector well enough to tell if the target is junk, and usually don't dig iron. This time it gave a clear positive signal, typical for coins. I found the rusty cannon ball right away. Why did it sound like a coin? Well, without getting too technical, any large round object will sound like a good target, even if you have iron mask turned on.

Further examination of the ball revealed, that it wasn't lost, as many unbroken balls are. After cleaning I found several cracks on one side of the ball, indicating that it was released, and then either hit something or fell on the cold ground and cracked due to rapid temperature change. The exact story of the cannon ball will never be known.

Translated by Dan Osipov, exclusively for Coindetector