ORIGINAL: SwampCollie
If you could of course prove that it was one of his... that would place the value just a wee bit above the $15K mark
I had a guy bring an old Colt pistol he bought for $50 from as he put it "some old black guy in Ravenel". Stamped on the top was a nice to have little feature that read "US ARMY". A letter to the Colt factory later, and we find out that this gun was used in the battle of Little Big Horn.... How it made it back to SC... who knows.... but it was worth more than the $50 the guy paid for it
Unfortunately both of Wild Bill's 1851 Colt Navy's are accounted for so this is not one of them.
I was just pointing out that the carved eagle design in the grip was popular back in the 1850's-1860's for those who wanted to show off their Colt Navy pistols like old Wild Bill did.
I suspect Wild Bill's Colts are worth somewhere in the six figure range. Talk about a piece of American history.