original colt 1860 army

[marsh trapper]

I have an colt 1860 army pistol with low serial number 366* its says made in 1861 im tryn to upload pics i guess my previous post never loaded ..does anyonehave an idea on how much its worth ..its all match serial numbers and in working condition thanks.

 

[Larry Akers]

You need to have the gun examined by an expert to determine that it is indeed a genuine Colt. There are a lot of fakes out there. Saw a guy on Antique Roadshow with his collection of Colts that he was very proud of and had spent a lot of money aquiring. Every gun in his collection turned out to be fake. If your's is genuine it could be worth a few thousand--it all depends on condition.

 

[stantdm]

I passed on a 1860 Army last year at a show. All original, no finish left, grips in poor condition. $1200.00 I have seen others of late as high as $2500 for well used condition, working but not cosmetically perfect.

If they are in good cosmetic condition they can get expensive and, of course, if they have a provenance to use in the Civil War or Indian Wars, or belonged to someone historically important then they get high priced.

 

[Grumpa]

Does it have fluted cylinders?

Richard/Grumpa

 

[Grumpa]

The first 6500 revolvers were generally fluted. The flutes were the brainchild of Wade Hampton of South Carolina (later General, CSA), for the purpose of equalizing pressure in the chambers.( Weight reduction was another consideration.) However, there was a problem of cylinders bursting, and dealers were instructed to return the gun to Colt, who would immediately replace the defective part with a new, unfluted one.

Will comment further after pics are posted, but finish, or lack thereof, usually determines the collector value.

Richard/Grumpa

 

[hawkeye2]

Lacking any detailed photos for us to go by you can probably get a ball park figure easily by yourself. Go to Books-A-Million, pull a copy of Flayderman's from the shelf, have a seat and read. As stated matching numbers, fit and finish are most important followed by mechanical function.

 

[Zonie]

The only problem with Flayerman's Guide is the latest edition is the 9th.

This was printed in 2007 so it is 10 years out of date when it comes to the estimated value's.

It's a wonderful book for anyone interested in antique firearms and contains a wealth of knowledge.

As for the Colt 1860 Army revolver it gives a value of $950 to $7500 for "Good" to "Fine" condition for Military issue guns and $900-$7000 for civilian guns.

That's $1107.55 to $8160.93 in 2016 dollars.

An original attachable shoulder stock for the 1860 Colt is shown to be $4250 (Good) to $10000 (Fine).

That's $4954.85 to $11658.47 in 2016 dollars.

For those of you who want to weep, here's a link to a inflation calculator.
I've bookmarked it on my computer for times like this.

http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=10000&year1=2007&year2=2016

 

[cw1873]

I know someone with an original fluted cylinder, and one is blown out. Serial number is just over 2000.