There are really no wonders in this world, do you believe it? In 1977, a British man bought a revolver for about 1,000 yuan, and after 41 years, the price of this revolver actually rose to 1.26 million, which sounds a bit strange, but this thing really happened in reality, what happened? Let's take a look!
Darren Griffith, a resident of west Midlands, England, was a well-known local weapons enthusiast who collected almost all models of European antique pistols, especially revolvers, and his fondness for this model of pistol was almost fanatical.
When Griffiths was a young boy, he began to obsessed with books about guns, and his knowledge of various guns in the last century was very valuable, at first, Griffith was mainly interested in the size of these guns and an ignition device called Forsyth, but later, he became obsessed with collecting various models of revolvers.
In 1977, Griffith bought a revolver for £118, equivalent to about 1,000 yuan, from a collector who was also an antique pistol enthusiast, which was a lot of money in those days. At that time, Griffith simply liked to collect and did not realize the value of this gun.
In 2018, the well-known American treasure hunting show "Antiques Roadshow" came to the Black Country Museum in Dudley, West Midlands, England, to record, after all, the whole treasure hunting process is free, and there is also a chance to be on TV. Therefore, the news that the "Antique Roadshow" program group was going to reach Deli's recording just came out, which attracted countless Tibetan friends who admired it. This also includes Griffiths.
In March 2018, Griffiths reported his name on the official website of the "Antique Roadshow" program group and came to the show with a revolver he had collected for 41 years, and he was shocked when antiques expert Bill Harriman carefully inspected the revolver.
Show scene
Harriman said:
I've been working in the Antique Roadshow group for nearly 30 years, and this revolver is the most weighty weapon I've ever seen on a roadshow. I'm sure this must have been the earliest version of a revolver in American history, a special model of the 5-round revolver that was made by American inventor Sam Colt in Patterson, New Jersey.
In 1836, Colt improved the revolver, and in the same year obtained the relevant patents, in 1837 produced the first new type of revolver in the United States, which is also the earliest batch of revolver models in American history, this new type of revolver almost changed the historical process of human firearm development.
We know that the earliest revolver was invented by the English lawyer Janes Puckle in 1718, but the early revolvers have not had much practical value because of too many barrels and only manual rotation, which is very bulky and extremely inefficient. But since 1837, when the American Colt improved the revolver, the efficiency of firearms began to increase greatly.
The revolver brought by Griffiths happens to be the earliest revolver model that Colt improved, so its historical value can be imagined how important it really is.
Antiques expert Bill Harriman
In the end, the revolver brought to Griffith by antiques expert Bill Harriman was valued at £150,000, or about 1.26 million yuan. The revolver was bought by Griffiths from another collector in 1977, and it cost about $1,000, but who would have thought that after 41 years, the price of the revolver would rise to 1.26 million. It's really incredible.
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