Original tin cups

[Slickrick214]

I have a collection of Civil War tinware, camping gear and other miscellaneous stuff from the war. What I'm trying to find is an original tin cup from the period. I have been able to find mess plates, knives and forks but not tin cups. Do you guys know of any antique dealers out there that might have dug up a tin cup at a battlefield. At this point I'm thinking I might have to cheat a little and use a beat up modern repro. So if you guys can't help me find an orginial and you have a nice beat up repro that you want to get rid of that would be great. The more black, dented and rusted the cup the better.

[Memphis]

Try a relic show. You will doubtless find several dozen cups in various conditions. The show at Dulles in April is near enough for a day trip from Philadelphia.

[tater]

Tin cups can be pretty hard to come by, as tin corrodes away rather quickly (anyone ever see the fed. button shells with no back? the backs were probobly made of tin) I have seen a few come up a CW shows, but I don't recall the asking price.

Hope that helps

[Poor Private]

The Mansfeild Ohio Civil war show is coming up rather soon... Google it for info and date. It's the largest in the midwest.

[Slickrick214]

Try a relic show. You will doubtless find several dozen cups in various conditions. The show at Dulles in April is near enough for a day trip from Philadelphia.

Dulles..that sounds really familiar. Thats not the Civil War Expo out near Harrisburg on the first of March is it?

Yea I was stupid I posted this thread in the wrong section of the forum.

[Kevin O'Beirne]

As Rog Johns says, try some relic shows--the bigger ones are more likely to have a wider array of goods.

Original tin cups of the day were often much less robust than today's repros used by reenactors, and they often tended to become casualties on the campaign trail. This is why many soldiers resorted to the expedient of using a tin can with a bail wire attached as their boiler, instead of an issued tin cup. Billings addresses this in the book, "Hardtack and Coffee" in the section on mess gear. That doesn't directly address the question of finding an original to buy, but it may explain why there aren't all that many originals around. I won't say they're uttlerly rare, that I know of at least, but they're less common than a more-durable item, such as original long-arms.