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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 2461163, member: 19463&quot;]I live ten miles from Petersburg and a neighbor has found such bullets in his yard.&nbsp; Mine never was searched but may have some although the inn was down the street so drops were more likely there. He gave me three local (my street) finds.&nbsp; One was a drop like yours.&nbsp; To be fired, these pieces of lead were packaged with some powder in a paper envelope which had to be torn open for use.&nbsp; When excited (like in war) it was not uncommon to tear open the pack incorrectly and spill the powder.&nbsp; That made the lead worthless so it would be thrown away and another pack used.&nbsp; That makes unshot bullets common.&nbsp; Those that were fired tend to be distorted from hitting something (tree, rock, person).&nbsp; Second was a cleaner bullet.&nbsp; Every so many bullets was shaped with a rim at the bottom that secured a ring of fabric (felt) that would wipe out the bore of the rifle when it was fired.&nbsp; Third was the one below.&nbsp; It is called a Medical Bullet and shows teeth marks perhaps from use in the &#039;bite the bullet&#039; form of anastesia.&nbsp; Modern theory, however, is that these were rarely used for that stated purpose since hospitals had anesthetics by this time and a leather belt worked better for biting.&nbsp; One theory is that some soldiers chewed a bullet to stimulate salivation curing dry mouth and boredom on a march.&nbsp; There is really no way to know.</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://www.pbase.com/dougsmit/image/53256309.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>More on topic is this Athenian obol which I believe has teeth marks perhaps from being carried in the mouth.&nbsp; Again, proving a &#039;why&#039; is always hard.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]516004[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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