The First Henry Ever Made Just Became the Most Valuable Rifle in History
Serial no. 1 sold for $5.875 million, the highest price ever paid for a rifle at auction.
On June 27, the rifle that started it all sold for $5.875 million at Rock Island Auction Company, the highest price ever paid for a rifle at auction. It wasn’t a rare prototype or a one-off custom build. It was Henry rifle serial no. 1, the very first production Henry, built by New Haven Arms Company in the 1860s and presented to a man standing at the center of American history.
The Most Expensive Rifle Ever Sold | Henry Serial No. 1 | ($5.875 MILLION)
A Gift for Lincoln’s Right Hand
In the 1860s, arms makers often gave their finest work to people who could open doors. Benjamin Tyler Henry had just introduced a genuine breakthrough, a lever-action repeating rifle that could fire 16 rounds without reloading, at a moment when the Union needed every advantage it could get. So the company presented engraved Henry rifles to three men close to President Lincoln: Secretary of War Edwin Stanton received serial no. 1, Lincoln himself received serial no. 6, and Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles received serial no. 9. The rifle presented to Welles became the inspiration behind The Silver Eagle.
Today, collectors know them as the Lincoln Cabinet guns. Lincoln’s rifle now sits in the Smithsonian. Welles’ is at the Autry Museum of the American West. Stanton’s, serial no. 1, was the last of the three still in private hands, and the only one anyone could actually buy.
Stanton is best remembered for the words he spoke at Lincoln’s deathbed: “Now he belongs to the ages.” It’s fitting that the rifle he was given now belongs to history in its own way.
(Rock Island Auction)
The Birth of America’s Rifle
Here’s the part that matters most to anyone who knows lever guns. Every lever-action rifle built in the 160-plus years since, every model, every maker, every variation on that under-barrel magazine and swinging lever, traces its lineage back to this one gun. The 1860 Henry was the design that proved a repeating rifle could actually work in the field, and it set the template that the entire lever-action category has followed ever since.
That’s not a small thing. For a century and a half, the lever-action has been the rifle of homesteaders, hunters, ranchers, and everyday Americans who needed a dependable repeater they could trust with their lives. It is, and forever will be America’s Rifle.
What It Sold For, and What It Means
The $5.875 million hammer price ties the all-time record for any firearm sold at auction, matching the Colt Single Action Army that fired the shot that killed Billy the Kid. RIAC President Kevin Hogan called it the most important lever-action rifle in private circulation, and the numbers backed him up.
For us, the story is bigger than the sale price. Henry Repeating Arms carries the Henry name forward more than 160 years later, and days like this are a reminder of exactly what that name has always stood for: American ingenuity, under pressure, that changed how people hunted, worked, and defended what mattered to them. We didn’t build serial no. 1. But every rifle we build owes something to it.
About Rock Island Auction Company
Rock Island Auction Company, purveyors of the world’s finest firearms, has led its industry since 2003. Founded in 1993 by CEO Patrick Hogan, RIAC’s current Bedford, Texas, venue has become the world selling headquarters for fine and historic arms, hosting all the company’s in-person auctions. Led by President Kevin Hogan, the company lives by its mission statement to “Elevate firearms collecting. Sell with Passion.” Best known for selling headline-grabbing arms, RIAC’s multiple auction formats cater to collectors of every experience level. Visit them online at rockislandauction.com.
