TRENTON, N.J. — A New Jersey dentist believes an engraved piece of cow horn that goes up for auction next month symbolizes the American dream for a man who was key to the founding of the United States and is now the focus of a blockbuster hip-hop Broadway musical.

A descendant, an arms appraiser and a forensic documents expert said they believe Alexander Hamilton used the horn to carry gunpowder.

A powder horn etched with Alexander Hamilton’s name, the year 1773 and a unicorn will be put up for auction in Closter, N.J., on Jan. 11. The Associated Press

The powder horn is inscribed with his name and 1773, the year in which Hamilton, born out of wedlock in the Caribbean island of Nevis and later orphaned, entered what today is Columbia University. Hamilton would have used it leading troops during the Revolutionary War and as an aide to Gen. George Washington.

It could have been by his side above the banks of the Hudson River in Weehawken, New Jersey, when the man who was the nation’s first treasury secretary was mortally wounded in a duel with Aaron Burr in 1804 and died at age 49.

“It’s a symbol of hopes and aspirations, and it’s such a positive symbol of his future,” said Dr. Warren Richman.

Richman acquired it from a patient in 1990 and spent years trying to document its authenticity and studying its etchings, which include a unicorn.

He hopes someone will purchase the powder horn and perhaps donate it to a museum. It goes up for auction in person, online and by telephone on what would have been Hamilton’s birthday, Jan. 11, at Sterling Associates in Closter, New Jersey. The opening bid is expected to be $10,000.

Hamilton has lately become the unlikely subject of a smash hip-hop musical on Broadway that’s the hottest ticket in town. Written and starring Lin-Manuel Miranda, the show tells the true story of how an orphan immigrant from the Caribbean rose to the highest ranks of American society, as told by a young African-American and Latino cast.

“Hamilton” was a sold-out sensation this year when it debuted at the Public Theater, with people paying well over 10 times the $120 ticket price and a crush of fans seeking tickets through a lottery.

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