Help support the collection.

American Musket

1775 to 1776

The tradesman who engraved this flintlock mechanism for an American military musket chose the sobering design from the Continental Three Dollar Bill, whose motto translated as “The Outcome is in Doubt.” Such American-produced arms from the early years of the American War of Independence are exceeding scarce. By 1777, imported French and other foreign arms increasingly displaced such locally produced weapons.