APPRAISER: At the end of the day, this gentleman walks up with a cartridge pouch thrown over his shoulder. And I look at it, and I thought, "Well, that's just a reproduction," and he takes it off, very roughly, and he throws it-- literally throws it-- on the table. I'm, like, "That can't be." And I got to look and I'm, like, "Oh, my goodness, it is." And I start talking to the guy, and he has no idea what he has.

GUEST: It's what I believe is a Civil War cartridge pouch. Has a regimental number on it. I don't know if that's a New York regiment or a Massachusetts regiment.

APPRAISER: Where'd you get it at?

GUEST: It was in the house that my parents bought down on the Cape at the very end of World War II, and there were a bunch of things in the attic, and, uh... That's where it came from.

APPRAISER: Would you be surprised if I told you it's a little earlier than Civil War?

GUEST: Yeah, I would be.

APPRAISER: Well, in the century before then, we had some guys come over from England and they wore red coats, and if you noticed, in the center of the plate, it's got some red.

GUEST: I noticed that.

APPRAISER: That's because this is an original Revolutionary War soldier's cartridge box.

GUEST: No kidding.

APPRAISER: And it's not 43rd New York and it's not 43rd Massachusetts.

GUEST: 43rd Light Infantry.

APPRAISER: It is the 43rd Light Infantry of the British soldiers from the Revolutionary War.

GUEST: My Lord.

APPRAISER (voiceover): On the outside of the box, it had, to this point, the only known non-excavated example of that plate, and the plate says, "43rd Light Infantry." That was strictly the way the British would refer to that regiment.

APPRAISER: They were not only in Boston, they were at the Battle of Bunker Hill.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: They were at the Battle of Lexington.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: And we don't know for sure, but it's quite possibly that this cartridge box that's sitting between us today was at those battles.

GUEST (gasps): Really?

APPRAISER: I found out later that the box was probably made just a little bit after Bunker Hill, but it could have been at Yorktown. And a lot of times when we do an appraisal, after the fact, we learn things that we didn't know. We know a lot, but we don't know it all. I had people inform me that there were two kinds of cartridge boxes for the British. They had a belly-mounted cartridge box, and the one that goes over the shoulder like this one is known as a cartridge pouch. A lot of times over the years, when we've had somebody bring in a cartridge box or cartridge pouch that they think is Civil War, it's either a re-enactor's piece or it's post-war, and worth a lot less. So usually, we have to tell them not so happy news. This one was wonderful, because I got to tell him not only was it a lot better than what he had thought it was, it was spectacular.

APPRAISER: There aren't enough superlatives for this box.

GUEST: Really?

APPRAISER: It's got the original buffed-leather shoulder sling. The box is solid as a rock. It's just flawless. It's got the original closure tab still present. It's got the original wooden block on the inside of it.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: It's got the original finial on the bottom-- the metal finial.

GUEST: Right, right.

APPRAISER: And finding all of those things together is like lining up all of those numbers on a lottery ticket. It doesn't happen, but once every so often.

GUEST: Hm!

APPRAISER: If this was a Civil War cartridge box, with the sling and everything, you're talking around $1,000, maybe $1,500 if it's really pretty. There's a whole different ball game with this one. This one, on today's market, would retail for between $20,000 and $25,000.

GUEST: My Lord! That's amazing. I mean, it's amazing that it's Revolutionary War.

APPRAISER: We get done, we go back over, and I always make it a point to say hi to the person and to thank him for being there. And he's, like, "Well, that was really neat." And he throws it back over his shoulder, and he be-bops out of the room, and I haven't heard a word from him. I'm hoping that he's not wearing that box around the Cape somewhere today. I tell the guy what I think is a conservative value. I wasn't a very smart man, because after the fact, I realized it's the only one. If you want one, you have to buy that one. In 2019, I think without a doubt, it would bring at least $50,000, and it wouldn't surprise me at all if it didn't bring twice that if the right people were in the room.