Found buried in a pit dug in Yankton, SD, where an old hotel used to be prior to 1875. The "vials" must be broken open, and inside the golden capsules are a piece of paper with a number on it.

Image from preview.redd.it and submitted by h0ldthech0ke
image showing Found buried in a pit dug in Yankton, SD, where an old hotel used to be prior to 1875. The "vials" must be broken open, and inside the golden capsules are a piece of paper with a number on it.

Woozlebuttons on September 26th, 2019 at 21:55 UTC »

This type of glass container is called an ampoule, which may help narrow down your search.

pimetasses on September 26th, 2019 at 22:54 UTC »

Tough to say what these are. Very odd. You might want to get in touch with some bottle digging/privy digging enthusiasts familiar with the area and it’s history. If you could find a way to get in touch with Tom Askjem or somebody similar, they might be able to make a more educated guess about these strange things.

grimsb on September 27th, 2019 at 04:18 UTC »

The capsules inside the ampoules look similar to the draft lottery capsules from WWI: https://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/capsules-world-war-i

So I’m guessing they were for some kind of lottery.