Colt Single Action Army First Bankers Engraved Cased Pair by Ben Shostle

Most commemorative Colts get dreamed up by a marketing department. This one came out of a Florida bank's boardroom, and the paperwork that comes with it tells the whole story. The First Bankers commissioned this matched pair through Colt's Custom Gun Shop in the mid 1980s, paid for in American Eagle gold and silver coin, and turned engraver Ben Shostle loose on both guns. Shostle was a name people in the trade knew. His scrollwork here runs deep across frame, barrel, and cylinder, broken up by gold band accents that frame each panel against the blue.

The two guns were never meant to match exactly, and that is the point. The .45 Colt wears a blued steel frame with two-line patent data and the rampant Colt on the left, paired with rosewood grips. The .44-40 carries a case-hardened frame with three-line patent data and the black powder style cylinder pin screw, fitted with select walnut. Both run the 7.5 inch barrel with The First Bankers in raised gold stacked lettering on the left side, and both grips wear the gold Colt 150th anniversary medallion, a happy accident of timing since Sam Colt founded the company in 1836 and these were commissioned in 1986.

The whole edition was limited to forty-five pairs, the .45s numbered one way and the .44-40s the reverse. What carries this set is the file that travels with it. You get the original First Bankers project letters from Frank McGinn laying out the engraving, the calibers, the cases, and the coin payment, plus the Colt factory letter and the original mailing envelope.

The oak cases are marked by caliber on the lid, velvet lined, with the antiqued bronze plate and a gold-plated cartridge set into each. For a collector who values documentation as much as the steel, this pair leaves very little to wonder about.