About the Piece
In 1912, Theodore Roosevelt was trying to return to the White House at the head of the new Progressive Party, popularly known as the Bull Moose Party after he declared himself “fit as a bull moose.” On October 10, an elaborately engraved Colt Single Action Army was ordered as a gift for his 54th birthday. Four days later, before the revolver reached him, Roosevelt was shot in the chest while campaigning in Milwaukee. The bullet passed through his spectacles case and folded speech before lodging in his body. He went onstage anyway and told the crowd it took more than that to kill a bull moose.
The Colt was no ordinary presentation firearm. Master engraver Cuno Helfricht covered more than three quarters of it in Colt’s highest level of factory embellishment, paired with a silver-plated finish and ivory grips, one carved with a steer head. A clerical error in Colt’s records helped obscure its identity for more than a century; when the Bull Moose Colt finally came to auction in 2020, it sold for $1,466,250. Spectres recreates that revolver, carrying the dense scroll engraving and carved grip into silver while selective gold gilding separates the grips from the engraved frame.
Bull Moose Revolver is the third Theodore Roosevelt object recreated by Spectres, following his 1884 Tiffany Bowie Knife and the 1909 Hunting Knife presented before his African expedition. Together, the three pieces move through very different chapters of Roosevelt’s life: the young rancher building himself in the Dakota Badlands, the hunter leaving the presidency for Africa, and the former president returning to the campaign trail under the Bull Moose banner.
Specifications
What’s Included
- Individually numbered Spectres piece
- Matching numbered Certificate of Authenticity with product specifications
- Custom-designed Spectres presentation box
Every Spectres piece carries the Ghost mint mark.
How is this a coin?
- A coin is defined by its official issuance, not by its physical shape. This piece is formally issued as legal tender by a sovereign issuing authority, with an official denomination and year of issue.
- Money and coinage have also taken unconventional forms throughout history, including ancient Chinese knife- and spade-shaped money. Spectres continues that idea in modern legal tender, where a coin may be round, shaped, functional, sculptural or fully three-dimensional.
