Civil War-era shell found in Stonehenge garden

Why can't I ever find anything like this?


http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs..../1356/COUNTY09

[tomh]

aphillbilly,

I shudder everytime I run across a story like this. The end result is that what appears to be a nearly perfect Hotchkiss will be destroyed by the bomb disposal unit.

While it is true that the shell probably contains explosive that will still function after 140 years, there are numerous reputable people that can properly disarm a shell, for a very reasonable fee. That way, the shell is rendered inert and the relic is preserved, not destroyed like it was a contemporary suitcase bomb.

In a similar vein, I recently purchased a rare Williams Cleaner Cartridge in the blue wrapper with a blue paper powder charger. In transit, the cartridge was broken in half, exposing the bottom of the bullet and the top of the charger. Since I had paid full retail for the cartridge, I informed the seller and got a refund. The seller turned in an insurance claim to the USPS and as a result, the cartridge was destroyed by the St. Louis postal inspector's office, even though I offered them a reduced price for the damaged cartridge. Damaged or not, it was still worth something, just not what I paid for an undamaged example. Because of the bad packing another extremely rare relic was destroyed.

TomH

[thea_447]

My mother used to trudge around faithfully with her metal detector in hopes of finding something truly historical. My father, the cynic in the family, always thought she would wind up finding something that would blow her and whatever family member she'd taken along with her to kingdom come.

She never came up with anything rare, just the usual stuff, but we had a grand time looking.

But with our luck, Tommy, you or I would find something, barely touch it and it would blow us up on the spot. The only good that would come of it would be perhaps we'd meet some of our heroes and those other guys too in the hereafter and be able to ask all the questions we'd ever wanted answered while alive.

It's a great sport though.