I came across this while looking for slings on ebay:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Ancient-Roman-Bronze-Matrix-Lead-Sling-Pellets-Rare-/220...

If it was for sling ammunition, it's interesting that it appears to have been designed for casting spherical rather that bi-pointed projectiles. Too bad the description doesn't say anything about where it came from or how old it is.

-Timothy Potter

More likely a North African musket ball mold for the Tuaregs or other tribes armed with jezails.

Firstly, the picture is of half the mould. Is the other half missing? The three small holes are almost certainly for pins to index the other half so the two sides of the balls aren't offset. It's an interesing shape: modern gang moulds have the cavities in line, with a trough on top. Most likely this shape uses less bronze.

Second, there is a lot of misinformation in the descriptions on eBay. I've seen one that said a mould was for the Henry rifle, which was a rimfire, whose cartridges couldn't be reloaded.

No judgement on round versus biconical, but the Roman term "glans" means acorn, which isn't spherical.

Thearos wrote on Sep 8^th, 2011 at 3:54pm:

Those are a feature of most modern bullet moulds. I just noted their presence.