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Looks Like A Musket Ball, Feels Like A Fossil.


ScotHibb

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Hi. I am a bit of a rock hound, but living in a 185yo historic house in NJ I have become quite interested in historic items, and have unearthed many such objects in our yard over the years, including fossils.

However, a picture uploaded to another Q&A thread caught my interest (via google search) as I found a very similar "ball" while digging for yellow ware near an old outhouse in PA close to the Ohio border.

This metallic rusty-looking ball seems too light to be solid metal, definitely NOT lead. The feel in the hand of a geode or possibly a somewhat hollow metal/mineral, however I don't wish to bust it open as it seems very old. It feels similar to many sea life fossils I have found, but its shape is really throwing me off. It's about an inch in diameter.

Would appreciate any help your collective great minds can offer on this vexing find!

Best regards,

ScotHibb

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The appearance is like a corroded cast iron grapeshot, but that would have the heft of metal.

If it seems to have the density of stone, I might suspect an ironstone concretion. Draw it across a piece of unglazed ceramic (the underside of a toilet tank lid will do), and let us know the color of the streak.

"There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant

“Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley

>Paleontology is an evolving science.

>May your wonders never cease!

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It has the appearance of a "Moqui Marble," but you are in the wrong part of the world. The "light for its size" is also characteristic of those spheres. Here is an article that mentions them. So, yours is a look alike at least. Sorry not to be of real help, but when you called on "great minds" I was compelled to answer in some fashion.

Navajo Sandstone - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, also are remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so. - Douglas Adams, Last Chance to See

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The appearance is like a corroded cast iron grapeshot, but that would have the heft of metal.

If it seems to have the density of stone, I might suspect an ironstone concretion. Draw it across a piece of unglazed ceramic (the underside of a toilet tank lid will do), and let us know the color of the streak.

I drew it a number of times on the bottom of a stoneware croc and the underside of a toilet lid. Both times the streaks were dark, blackish. The streaks were blown away easily, and when touched had the faint smell of struck flint or an old spent matchstick.

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It has the appearance of a "Moqui Marble," but you are in the wrong part of the world. The "light for its size" is also characteristic of those spheres. Here is an article that mentions them. So, yours is a look alike at least. Sorry not to be of real help, but when you called on "great minds" I was compelled to answer in some fashion.

Navajo Sandstone - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I must admit I am a bit embarrassed after reading your reply. The family trip we took years ago started with visiting my parents in Pittsburgh, and continued to Arizona, Utah, and ended at my brother's place in L.A. We had a carry-on case that we placed our pottery/rocks/minerals/fossils in, and made the mistake of not tagging the items until we reached California. It is quite possible that after all these years I had mistakingly tagged it from PA since I thought it might be a small cannon ball. Reading the link you provided makes it more likely that it was not found in the outhouse dig in PA after all...

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It does have that 'desert varnish' sheen to it, and the black streak is consistent with iron oxide.

"There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant

“Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley

>Paleontology is an evolving science.

>May your wonders never cease!

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It has the appearance of a "Moqui Marble," but you are in the wrong part of the world. The "light for its size" is also characteristic of those spheres. Here is an article that mentions them. So, yours is a look alike at least. Sorry not to be of real help, but when you called on "great minds" I was compelled to answer in some fashion.

Navajo Sandstone - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"but when you called on "great minds" I was compelled to answer in some fashion." :rofl:

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I've got a pretty strong feeling, that if you touched Utah in your ramble, the object is indeed a Moqui Marble. Given that, it is a wonderful thing. Here is a photo of a grouping of these resting on a wind-shaped piece of sandstone. It resides on the table in the formal dining room of palatial Snolly Manor (snolly's got a great wife). I hope you will enjoy learning more about your piece. Their origin has been a subject of debate.

post-8873-0-31255700-1431567594_thumb.jpg

Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, also are remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so. - Douglas Adams, Last Chance to See

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Thanks Snolly, speaking with my wife she reminded me that we found a few smaller ones on that trip...in Utah. It appears the kids hid the smaller ones to play with (statue of limitations has been reached on punishing them at this point in time) ;).

I can't wait to learn more about these, and am glad that I stumbled on this site in my search for an answer.

Kind regards,

Scot

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  • 2 weeks later...

I too am a New Jersey resident living in an old farmhouse. I also like Civil War artifacts and the corroded iron ball you found is certainly not of military origin because no Civil War battles were fought here. A Revolutionary war cannon ball was found in a garden in town which is now in our local museum. This is because G Washington and his troops camped here the night before the battle of Monmouth.

I also found a 50 caliber lead musket shot eroded from the dirt in our driveway. The iron from your ball looks like Jersey bog iron from the way it has corroded. That would date it from Colonial times or slightly later probably made at the Batso Furnace. The most likely origin of that ball is from a piece of farm equipment, maybe a bearing or something like that or the broken off tip of something but the no grape shots are found in NJ that I know of.

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I too am a New Jersey resident living in an old farmhouse. I also like Civil War artifacts and the corroded iron ball you found is certainly not of military origin because no Civil War battles were fought here. A Revolutionary war cannon ball was found in a garden in town which is now in our local museum. This is because G Washington and his troops camped here the night before the battle of Monmouth.

I also found a 50 caliber lead musket shot eroded from the dirt in our driveway. The iron from your ball looks like Jersey bog iron from the way it has corroded. That would date it from Colonial times or slightly later probably made at the Batso Furnace. The most likely origin of that ball is from a piece of farm equipment, maybe a bearing or something like that or the broken off tip of something but the no grape shots are found in NJ that I know of.

Thanks Jpevahouse,

The object is too light to be a musket or cannon ball, so you are correct (it was also not found in our area). The mystery has been solved, Snolly was correct in that it is indeed a Moqui Marble (collected and not well tagged on a long family trip which included Utah).

Last week I was down at the Rutgers geology department with my 9 year old and they verified that it is a Moqui Marble. We were also able to find the rest of the collection the kids had kept for their amusement, and they are all now nicely nestled atop a dry sink in our dinning room.

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"...they are all now nicely nestled atop a dry sink in our dinning room."

Like snolly, ScotHibb must have a great wife.

Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, also are remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so. - Douglas Adams, Last Chance to See

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