If it had those features, rivet holes or threaded fuze hole, then it would post date the 1850s. So it is earlier than that but therefore very difficult to date as shells followed a simple design for very many decades. Likewise it is difficult to state what type of ordnance it was for, as guns, howitzers, carronades & mortars all fired shells. Though British mortars were not 6 inch so that one could be ruled out. It would have been strapped to a wood bottom to keep it properly orientated in the bore - fuze up.
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