4097 HISTORIC & UNIQUE GOLD & SILVER MOUNTED TEMPLETON

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[?]Live Online Auction Starts In 2025 Nov 02 @ 10:00 (UTC-04:00 : AST/EDT)
Category Firearms & Military
Auction Currency USD
Start Price 12,500.00 USD
Estimated at 25,000.00 - 30,000.00 USD
REID, COLUMBUS GEORGIA MADE RIFLE. Cal. 58. NSN. Barrel is 38" full octagonal. This rifle is only example known made by Templeton Reid, best known for his manufacture of extremely rare Georgia territorial gold coins. This rifle was for many years in the Greene Museum of Chattahoochee Valley History till contents were sold by James D. Julia Auctions in 2014. The museum reader board read: "This rifle was manufactured by Templeton Reid about the year 1830. It was originally a flintlock rifle which has been converted to percussion. The rifle was personally owned by Templeton Reid and was the one he used in the late 1830s in rifle matches in Columbus, Georgia. The gold overlay of the rifle barrel was a Georgia gold nugget that Reid hammered into a sheet of gold and overlaid to protect the barrel from pitting. Reid also inlaid his name in gold in the lock plate. Silver pins were inlaid on the stock to form a checkered design. The patch box lid was originally a Cohutta Indian gorget cut up and inlaid on the stock of the gun. Templeton Reid was born in the year 1785. He moved from North Carolina to Eatonton GA with his family, while he was still a child. As a young man in Milledgeville, Georgia area Reid engaged into several professions: blacksmithing, watchmaking, gunsmithing and as a silversmith working in both gold and silver. Shortly after gold was discovered in North Georgia, Templeton Reid, in 1830 moved to Gainesville GA and opened a private mint, where he became the first person in the United States to privately mint gold coins. Reid minted gold coins in denominations of $2.50, $5, and $10…. In 1849, in Columbus GA, Templeton Reid minted 2 gold coins, one coin was of a $25 denomination. The other was a $10 coin. The $25 gold coin was stolen from the United states mint in 1858 and has never been recovered. Reid died in Columbus GA in 1851. The editor of the Columbus Enquirer described Templeton Reid as the best gunsmith in the United States" The half stock rifle is silver & gold mounted, unique 6-piece silver Cherokee patchbox design, shrouded silver around brass buttplate, silver toeplate, silver trigger guard is attached to a steel trigger plate which extends forward of the bow, forming "acorn" finial with chased detail, silver hunting star inset on cheek piece, over 300 silver pins are inset into checkered wrist, silver shield thumb plate, silver reinforced plate between lock & engraved barrel breech, silver nose cap, three silver ramrod thimbles mounted on brass rib at bottom of 38" full octagonal barrel, and four silver keyway escutcheons. 2.25" x 1.5" piece of sheet gold covers 3 flats of breech to ingeniously protect from powder corrosion. Lockplate has an inlaid gold rectangle engraved in block letters "REID", the same marking is found on barrel. UNATTACHED ACCESSORIES: research document and biographic material. CONDITION: very good overall, sound and complete, iron patina, silver patina, mechanically fine, good rifled bore. PROVENANCE: Templeton Reid (1785-1851); Cecil Anderson collection; Featured & described "Gunsmiths and Allied Tradesmen of Georgia" by Wayne Elliott & James Whisker, 2011; George Greene collection (1950-2014) (Greene Museum of Chattahoochee Valley History); James Julia Auction, lot 3341, October 2014. (01-27275/JS). ANTIQUE. $25,000-30,000.