Bunn Leonard wrote:
"All right weve all dug our fair amount of pulltabs and caps but this one was different, I dug it at an old tavern built in the 1700s, its made of aluminum smaller than a quarter but larger than a dime" [...]
My area of relic-knowledge is mostly civil war era items, with only "some" additional knowledge about post-war items.
Probably the most important thing (to a relic-hunter) about your cap is that it is made of aluminum ...which was a VERY rare (and thus "precious") metal prior to the 1890s. Its value in 1852 was $1200 per kilogram - which was higher than the value of gold in that era. Aluminum is the most abundant metal element in the earth's crust ...but all of it is chemically bound in "ore" that was EXTRAORDINARILY difficult (and therefore, expensive) to refine the metal itself out of. Then in 1889 an American inventor (Charles M. Hall) devised an inexpensive way to refine it ...which lead to it becoming cheap enough for "everyday" products in the 20th century.
This means your aluminum cap is a 20th-century item, even though it was dug at a 1700s site. I assume that's what you wanted to know about it. Please pardon me if I misunderstood your post.
If you have any interest, one of the best articles on the History Of Aluminum is at:
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blaluminum.htm
Regards,
TheCannonballGuy
