Mystery Object (Not a coin)
Wahoo554
Posts: 1,151 ✭✭✭✭✭
So this is not a coin, but there are enough knowledgeable historians on this site that perhaps somebody has an explanation as to what it is. Somebody brought this in to display at my metal detecting club. They found it inside of the wall of an antebellum house where they were doing demolition work. The homesite is in NC near where a battle took place. The object is heavy like a solid brass paperweight. What look like gears do not rotate at all. No indication of it being hollow, except for the CSA button-sized end, which was dented when his son knocked it off of a table 🤦♂️. Anyways, nobody could explain the object and I find it puzzling. Any ideas?
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Photo of bottom would’ve been helpful. Looks like a CSA button jammed into a machine part.
I wish I had one. I took this several months ago. I recall it being smooth and solid. Definitely no pattern or inscription.
Sprocket for something chain driven?
yeah, it looks like a chain sprocket of some type.
That's what I was thinking.
I think the CSA button is possibly a bit of misdirection. Maybe someone made a paperweight out of unrelated pieces (sprocket and button).
All interesting thoughts. So odd that it would ultimately be placed inside of a wall.
You guys!
Confederate motorcycle sprocket!
Me thinking out loud - I have trouble seeing brass being used in a serious chain drive application, which the tooth spacing seems to indicate. I don't see significant wear either, which is obvious even on steel bicycle cogs after a period of use. Therefore I think it's brass plated. Three cogs with identical tooth spacing seems pretty useless in any kind of application. It has 15 teeth, which would be a decent gear for a single speed bicycle; not sure about motorcycles. Tough to get an idea of the diameter - is that a 3x5 card? Given that it seems useless (and unused), my first thought was a decorative door knob. But if there's no hole in the bottom, then it's truly useless. Perhaps just a paperweight.
Roller chain sprocket.
Applications, such as movement of material on a conveyor belt, driving machines, or turning equipment such as a cement kiln.
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With the addition of the CSA button, it looks like a desk piece (paper weight or display)...likely hidden when the south lost the war....Cheers, RickO
Maybe it's from a Gatlin Gun or Cannon!
I would also suggest that CSA could stand for about 1000 other things: including Canadian Space Agency! This does not have to be a Civil War relic at all.
Or --- It was a prototype for Confederate uniform buttons, but found to be too heavy and prevented soldiers from standing upright. This was helpful during infantry charges, but difficulties arose in hand-to-hand combat, and military parades.
Did you say the SCA comes off? Looks like a cool ink well to me maybe.
Collector of randomness. Photographer at PCGS. Lover of Harry Potter.
Confederate Sprocket Anomaly
I’m thinking gear for steam power operation looks like naval brass ship maybe
https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/quarters/washington-quarters-major-sets/washington-quarters-date-set-circulation-strikes-1932-present/publishedset/209923
https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/quarters/washington-quarters-major-sets/washington-quarters-date-set-circulation-strikes-1932-present/album/209923
It's a whoozymawhatsit thingamajig. Peace Roy
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I think it was welded onto the larger brass object. Definitely wasn’t readily detachable.
darn :-(
Collector of randomness. Photographer at PCGS. Lover of Harry Potter.