My first outing of 2016 lands me a silver and gold relic I have never found before!!!

[Devonrex]

My first outing of 2016 landed me a relic I have never found before! A solid silver writing instrument, along with a finial to a Confederate cartridge box, 2 Gardners, 4 musket balls, a lone percussion cap and some buck balls. So after a thorough research the silver writing object I found is called a nib. It is made out of solid silver with a thin layer of gold inside the writing end. Apparently because of the circular shape these were used for map drawing. There would have been a wooden rod inserted in the right hand side of the object. Most writing instruments during the Civil War were quills . Apparently in the Federal Army 12 quills were issued by the army as part of the quarterly stationary rations. 12 quills were issued each quarter or you could substitute 1 nib. In the Confederate Army I am sure a nib was probably never issued to the standard infantry man. I'm sure a Confederate engineer of high rank owned this writing instrument. This awesome relic was found not more than 50 feet from the spectacular Mississippi "I" button I found last week. I was hoping to find another Mississippi button but I will surely take this! A nib whose purpose was map drawing is just a spectacular find! I will get a close - up of this awesome relic in a little while. Devonrex

 

[villagenut]

Very cool find. I don't ever recall seeing one dug, but yours is outstanding with an equally impressive history.

 

[thrifty76now]

Awesome find on that writing instrument.