Got an e-mail from an old friend in South Africa today. Pretty self explanatory so I copied & pasted the bulk of the text. I don't have much to do with muskets etc so I really don't know if this would be in demand over here. Opinions?

" To get down to the purpose of this letter..........A (considerable) number of original pristine condition (mint/as new) Number 2 Musket 500/450 paper patched 485 grain Kynoch black powder rounds has come into my possession. Some of the rounds are loose, while others are in their original packaging. I would grade on of the packages as 95% good condition while the others are 75 to 80%, while the actual rounds are in 100% mint condition. There is absolutely no damage to the brass and no furring of the lead bullet, they look like they were manufactured yesterday. I would date the rounds at about 1885 to 1890. I kid you not these are collectors items, the finest I have personally ever seen. The local collectors have been approached by the lady who owns them, they are very interested but they want them for nothing. In all fairness to the lady concerned I thought there might be a market for them in the US (maybe). If anyone is interested I can take pics and email them to you."

BTW, my friend is also a gun dealer & quite knowledgeable on things old & gunny.
badger

I am interested. please email me some photos. yhanks in advance.

Bear Claw,

will send photos as soon as I get some from him.
badger.

Try and get headstamp photos if possible too , please . We are probably all interested if the price is right!

Email the photos to me & I will post them here.

Bear Claw,
got some photos from him tonite but picture quality is not good. Will e-mail them to you anyway. I wrote him back & asked for more, better quality photos including headstamp pictures.
badger.

I'm not much of a cartridge collector, but I'd be interested in a package just because it would be a neat thing.

Anyone have an idea as to price? sorry if that seems boorish, but I'm sort of blunt.

Regards,

Eric

Eric,

I'm waiting on some more photos & info. I can also e-mail you with the gentleman's info if you want so you can get it from the horse's mouth (so to speak) badger

Badger I was able to sharpen the first photo up a bit. It was out of focus a good bit. Even in the blurred photo this stuff looks to be in excellent condition.

I would be interested. Let me know what I need to do to get a few.

Let me know what they are going to cost. RNS

Another e-mail as follows:
"Hi Alan,
I tried to take pictures of the headstamps, but I couldn't get the focal
plane right so the pics came out blurred. What I can tell you is that the
headstamps are

Kynoch (at the top)
No 2 Musket (at the bottom)

These are not modern manufactured rounds but the originals pre 20th Centaury

I hope this helps

Regards
Malcolm"

Interested parties please e-mail me at Ykidson@aol.com
I will furnish you with Malcolm's e-mail addy.
badger

The big issue is not likely to be the loading or quality, but the mechanics and expense of moving them from South Africa to the US, NZ or whatever. It's a real witch to ship ammo internationally, especially small quantities between private parties. Or at least to do so legally.