Possible Revolutionary War prison camp relic

moultin8

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Nov 4, 2017
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Hey, Gang. I was recently looking for buried treasure on my dad's property, and we found the attached length of chain about 10" down. I cleaned it for over a day by way of electrolysis, but it didn't clean up very well as you can see. There are no welds, the links are somewhat irregular, and it's deeply pitted, layer by layer. My hunch is that it's wrought iron, but haven't tested it. My impression is that it's very very old because three of the links have become cemented together, and the only thing I've ever read about relic cementing was in some archaeology source, which makes me think it must be old as the hills. The reason I think it might be Revolutionary War is because my dad lives in south-central PA very close to where archaeologists are digging up relics from Camp Security--a Revolutionary War prison camp.

I know it's impossible to say one way or another just by sharing pics, but what's y'all's impression of the find?

Note: I tried attaching four pics, but the system only let me do the one. I'll try again with the others after posting.
 

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Here's the other pics..
 

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Sorry to upload the same pic again, but forgot to make mention that the last one shows a "wart" where it appears the iron has re-delosited itself over time. I cleaned it for over a day, so I know it's not just rust, and it's impossible to break the piece off with a screwdriver. I don't know if that's at all relevant, but there you have it.
 

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Chain is very hard to clean with electrolysis because you need a good electrical connection to each link. I have had success with chain in vinegar but it takes a long time and smells bad!
 
Yeah, I noticed it only wanted to clean one link at a time. I'll try the vinegar.
 
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