Centennial Arms Corp. was born out of Sig Shore Galleries, an auction house in Lincolnwood, IL. Sig Shore formed a company to deal in surplus military rifles and ammunition, and second-hand guns generally, named MARS. While the original concept of MARS Equipment Corporation was to engage in buying from primary importers and resell as jobbers and dealers in the United States, the market conditions dictated an expansion of the company funds into other channels. The course of manufacturing presented itself and a series of coincidences launched the Centennial Arms Corporation line of percussion shooting replica revolvers, pistols, and pistol-carbines.

Centennial Arms was the brainchild of Bill Edwards, considered the father of the replica revolver industry. Sig Shore and Bill Edwards were on a trip to Germany and passed through Liege, Belgium. There there met Mr. Paul Hanquet, great grandson of one J. Hanquet who in 1852 had signed an agreement with Sam Colt authorizing him to manufacture Colt's Patent (Colt Brevete) revolvers in Liege. Associated with Mr. Paul was his cousin. Mr. Albert Hanquet, in a company the trade mark of which is "Centaure." The rampant centaur is quite clearly lifted from the cylinder engraving of one of Colt's Paterson pistols, and "Centaure" had been handgun and musket makers in Liege for generations. Shore bought a number of muskets from these people and later, upon re-turning to the United States and casting about for additional work for MARS money, hit upon the idea of having them make the copy of the Colt 1860. And the Centaure 1960 New Model Army revolver was born, in honor of the Civil War Centennial in 1960. It was the first reproduction of the 1860 Colt Army revolver and has become one of the most sought after replicas made.

Later, their revolver program from Belgium was extended to three models of their Centaure line, namely the Regular New Model Army, the Civilian New Model Army and the Cavalry New Model Army. They had also added the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Model Dragoon from an Italian maker as well as several other models from Italian makers Armi San Paolo and others. Centennial Arms ceased doing business in the late 1970's.