ANNIE OAKLEY COIN
AIRED: Season 6, Episode 1
THE DETECTIVE: Elyse Luray
THE PLACE: Cody, Wyoming
THE CASE:
A contributor from Bath, Maine has an 1853 French Napoleon coin with a bent, split edge and a great bit of family lore: it’s said that the coin was shot by Annie Oakley and that Annie herself gave the coin to two of the contributor’s great-grand uncles.
It doesn’t look like any of the souvenir coins the Wild West icon typically handed out to her many fans. Can we prove that the sharp-shooting star of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show shot up the coin for the two brothers – and turn family lore into bona fide bragging rights?
To find out, History Detectives conducts ballistics tests, scours the Buffalo Bill Historical Center archives and recreates one of Oakley’s sure shots.
Feature: Women of the Wild West
Find out more about the women of the Wild West who shot down the view that life as a female pioneer was about cooking, sewing, cleaning and caring for children.
Think you have a case for the History Detectives? Send us your mystery here. 