Beautiful US Cartridge Box Plate – Pre Civil War

[Mike N Tn.]

I was detecting an old roadbed in the woods of a winter of 1863 “hunted out” camp near Shelbyville Tennessee when I unearthed this beautiful US Cartridge Box Plate. I was surprised at the great condition of the plate as it was only five inches deep.
The reference book said the plate is Pre Civil War from the 1840’s. It has fatter letters than the ones I usually find, and it’s not eaten up from acid rain and fertilizer. I’ll never know for sure, but I theorize that relic hunters in the past probably thought the Cartridge Box Plate signal was from a soda can, or maybe the iron in the back of the plate discriminated the signal from older detectors. I also found camp lead, a J hook, and some horseshoes. I was using an Equinox 600.

 

[mindcrime1988]

Nice find.

 

[DigToChina]

Once again proves the axiom that there’s no such thing as “hunted out”. 😁 Congratulations on an excellent find!

 

[releventchair]

Congrats! That's a great recovery.

 

[Centsless Detecting]

That's a real beauty. Congratulations.

 

[GDub62]

Awesome

 

[Whynotnow?]

thats a good looking plate, nice work! are you gonna do any restoration to it past a basic clean?

 

[Sandog]

Great find, good job.

 

[Mike N Tn.]

thats a good looking plate, nice work! are you gonna do any restoration to it past a basic clean?

Basic cleaning - soap and water - It was pretty caked with dirt. I like to leave a relic with as much patina as possible, So... no restoration. Leaving as is.

 

[pepperj]

Nice recovery, it will display very nicely. Congrats

 

[E-Trac-Ohio]

WOW !!!

 

[Almy]

I've found brass bells 3" down and a silver half dollar in an easily-accessible of a site hunted by countless MDers. Never could figure that out either. Congratulations on your great find!

 

[Trezurehunter]

Congrats on a great Civil War relic.

 

[Cherokee65]

That’s very cool! Congrats!

 

[scruggs]

Very nice find!

 

[Lenrac2]

Fantastic find!! Congrats!!

 

[johnnycat]

Great job! I've found a couple of those and it's always a great feeling.

 

[Digger RJ]

I was detecting an old roadbed in the woods of a winter of 1863 “hunted out” camp near Shelbyville Tennessee when I unearthed this beautiful US Cartridge Box Plate. I was surprised at the great condition of the plate as it was only five inches deep.
The reference book said the plate is Pre Civil War from the 1840’s. It has fatter letters than the ones I usually find, and it’s not eaten up from acid rain and fertilizer. I’ll never know for sure, but I theorize that relic hunters in the past probably thought the Cartridge Box Plate signal was from a soda can, or maybe the iron in the back of the plate discriminated the signal from older detectors. I also found camp lead, a J hook, and some horseshoes. I was using an Equinox 600.

Awesome!!! Congrats!!!