What is a Collectable Firearm?

A collectable firearm is a firearm that is of obvious and significant commemorative, historic, thematic or investment value.

Obvious and significant – according to the Macquarie Concise Dictionary the term “obvious” is defined as “clearly perceptible or evident, easily recognised or understood, open to view or knowledge”.  The term “significant” is defined as “important, of consequence; expressing a meaning; having a special or covert meaning, suggestive”.

A collector must substantiate in an application that the firearm/s that they wish to possess as part of their collection is of obvious or significant commemorative, historic, thematic or investment value –“collectable firearm” refer to section 77(2) of the Act.

Obvious and Significant and Value

The Macquarie Concise Dictionary second edition, reprinted 1994, defines these words as follows:

• Value:  1. that property of a thing for  which it is esteemed, desirable, or useful, of the degree of this property possessed; worth, merit, or importance: the value of education.  2. the worth of a thing as measured by the amount of other things for which it can be exchanged, or as estimated in term of a medium of exchange.
• Commemorate: / …/, v.t. –rate, -rating.  1. to serve as a memento of.  2. to honour the memory of by some solemnity or celebration.  [L commemoratus, pp., brought to remembrance] – commemoration / …/, n. – commemorative, adj. – commemorator, n.
• Historic: /his’torik/, adj. well-known or important in history: historic scenes. Also historical.
• Theme:  n. 1. a subject of discourse, discussion, meditation, or composition; a topic.
• Investment: /in’vestment/, n. 1. the investing of money or capital in order to secure profitable returns , esp. interest or income.  2. a particular instance or mode of investing.  3. a thing invested in.  4. that which is invested. 

Commemorative

According to the Macquarie Concise Dictionary the term ‘commemorate’ is defined as ‘to serve as a memento of or to honour the memory of by some solemnity or celebration.  A firearm may be considered a collectable if it can be proven the firearm has commemorative value.

Some weapons have been released by recognised manufacturers as collector’s weapons and are strictly commemorative issue to celebrate certain milestones in history.  A firearm may be of obvious and significant commemorative value if the firearm clearly commemorates a specific event.

For example:

• The shotgun used by Australian shooter Suzanne Balogh to win gold in the women’s trap event at the Olympics Games in Athens; or
• The one hundredth anniversary of the Winchester rifle.

To support these examples, documentation or verification of the facts must be supplied to the Weapons Licensing Branch.

Investment Value

A firearm may be of obvious and significant investment value if it is of such a nature that it can only increase in value over a period of time.  Proof of obvious and significant investment value can be achieved by the presentation of documentation showing the original purchase price of the firearm and then proportional increases in value, other than CPI or inflation values.  An example of this might be a gold plated rifle.

In order to address the investment criterion, consider the following:

• What is the value of the firearm?  On a yearly basis, calculated on a percentage of the original cost, by how much is the value of the firearm increasing?
• How is the value of the firearm any different from other, similar weapons currently being used by sporting shooters?
• If the weapon was originally purchased for pistol club use, explain why there is now an investment value;
• If the true investment value is to be determined, the definite number of individual weapons originally manufactured must be addressed.

To support these examples, documentation or verification of the facts must be supplied to the Weapons Licensing Branch.

Thematic

A firearm may be of obvious and significant thematic value if it fits within a clearly identified theme of collection.

For example, a person may have a collection of Colt firearms that are originals that  is missing one or two models, which are not available in the original condition (or are exorbitantly expensive). A modern copy of the model, exact in every detail, including calibre, could be considered collectable to complete the theme.

In order to address the thematic criterion, consider the following:

• What is the theme?  For example – Police jurisdiction, Armed Forces, Intelligence Organisations or Peace Keeping Operations.
• How does the firearm fit within your established theme?
• What documentation can verify the use of this particular weapon for the relevant theme?
  What items, other than firearms, does your themed collection contain?

To support these examples, documentation or verification of the facts must be supplied to the Weapons Licensing Branch.

Historic

A firearm may be of obvious and significant historic value if it was used in some historical event, and the definite period of history in which the firearm was used can be identified.

How is the firearm of historical significance?  For example:

• The weapon was used during the trench warfare of World War I in France: Who used the weapon?  Why is it significant in comparison to other firearms of the same type?
• The weapon was carried by a soldier at the signing of the surrender treaty with Japan at the end of WWII.

To support these examples, documentation or verification of the facts must be supplied to the Weapons Licensing Branch.