Custom Howard Hill “Big Five” dated 7/4/1976

[KadyBoBady]

Hello Everyone!! I joined the tradgang because I have an interesting story.  I'm not an archer but I am interested in learning. I do have respect for people that keep a tradition alive that requires practice & skill. I also love history. 

Soooo...here's my story about a Howard Hill longbow that I have recently acquired.  My boyfriend likes to barder & trade tools and motors and stuff, like boys do.  Recently, he brought home a longbow he had gotten in a trade & asked me if I could find anything about it online. 

This longbow has "The Big Five" written on one side and "Howard Hill" on the other. Under the grip, it has written "Custom for Louis Armbruster July 4,1976"  with the serial number on the other side under the grip. I did a search and learned about Howard Hill and his amazing life, found out Louis Armbruster was a bowyer as well.  I was confused with the fact that Howard Hill died in 1975 but this custom built longbow was dated 7/4/1976? 

Then I found an blog written by Nate Steen.  He had met John Schulz who built bows for the Howard Hill Archery for a time after Hill's passing and later moved on to building bows for his own company American Longbow.  In 1976, John Schulz wanted to commemorate the bicentennial by making a custom series of longbows made for the next 13 people on the waiting list.  The 13 representing the original 13 states.  In this blog the serial number was explained, this particular series was (for example) 5-70107 52@28.  Schulz' specs read the first number refers to the model 5-The Big Five, the second is the length (70"), with the number of the series third with every series starting at #101, 107 being the 7th made in the series, lastly the weight at the requested draw length. 

The serial number on the bow I have is 5-69114 80@28. So I'm wondering if this bow was made as part of the bicentennial series?  Is this a valuable bow?

Any input or information would be appreciated as I've become very interested in this topic!!  I'd like to attach pictures but I'm not sure how??