U.S. Grant’s Wheel Guns Worth $5 Million

As you may know, a set of Remington revolvers– serial numbers 1 and 2– presented to Ulysses S. Grant, the Civil War heavyweight champion and 18th President, were recently rediscovered after falling off the grid for a couple of generations and went to auction. They were estimated to run between $1-$3 million but bidding soon went off the charts over last week, hitting $5.17 million.

Rock Island, the auction house that sold them, says the Grant wheel guns were the “second-highest price ever obtained in the field of fine arms collecting.” For the record, the highest-selling firearm in history at this point is the Colt Single Action– credited as the gun Pat Garrett used to kill Billy the Kid— which was sold by Bonhams last year for $6,030,313.