More Revolution War Site finds

[Patriot Relics]

Hey guys,

I hit a revolutionary war site in Charleston, SC that had produced 3rd/19th regiment of foot buttons and recovered these additional pewter buttons, round balls, and what I'm thinking is a section of a belt buckle. Looking for feedback regarding the caliber of the round balls (slight larger than a dime), the unknown pewter piece, and the sunburst domed button. Also, does anyone know how to clean these pewter buttons or should I just seal them in wax. Thanks for the help!

 

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[BosnMate]

Your bullet (round ball) find is probably for the Brown Bess musket, which was a standard .75 caliber, but fired an undersized ball of .72 caliber. In those days, the size of a
guns bore wasn't rated in caliber, it was the number of round lead balls per pound of lead that it fired. A Brown Bess fired 12 balls to the pound, and that's where the gauge
of a modern shotgun comes from. The modern 12 gauge shotgun is the same bore size as he Brown Bess, and the size of a 12 gauge bore is about the size of a dime, that's
what I"m basing my guess on. If you really want to know for sure, you need to properly measure the size to the thousandths of an inch. The French musket used by the
Americans fired a .69 caliber ball, so you would be able to tell if your find was British or American. Great find, living out west, I'll never be able to find something like that, so I'm
eating my heart out.