An Item Bought On A Whim

Reminds me of a punch marked coin. Could also be an Islamic issue under the Mughals, or the civic coinage of Iran and Afghanistan.

I agree with moxking. This has something to do with Rudolph's nose.

This is a real puzzler.

The shape is too irregular for it to have been a manufactured part.

Me, too, and it's not even mine!

So, I looked up ingots and stuff and kind of thought that it was possibly a bit of leftover brass that got put into a home-made clay mold. The circular marks are still a puzzle.

I showed it to my husband. His father was a jeweler for many years and had all the tools and stuff. He knew exactly how someone would do such a thing.

He said the circular marks had to have been at the bottom of the mold as the smoothest side was the side that showed slag marks. The molten metal would level off and be smoothest at the top. The slag rises to the top and gets removed.

We haven't seen all six sides so we're really guessing here. But he thought that the circular marks might have been made by a tool used to tamp clay or sand for the mold. He thought clay was used since the item is mostly smooth. His father made his lead sinkers this way. (He fished every day after he retired.)

Basically, he thought someone had bits of brass and they melted into a pellet to be used at a later date, just like I had thought.

All this made me feel like it was Solved -- but it's not. It could have been made last year or a thousand years ago and the circular marks are still a puzzle.

But if it isn't ancient -- it quite likely is leftover metal from someone who made belt buckles or jewelry or anything else. It seems the easiest explanation.

On the other hand, maybe there's some other more interesting history to it.

LOL
& I thought I had stumbled
across a rare gem..
live and learn..
Happy New Year

Hi Buddy
would you mind if
i send a pm.?
tia

To me it looks like a worn dowling pin to keep a gear in place, and the round marks are set screws to keep it in place.