[ithacaartist]

I knew about the 1920 property stamp already, but need tightening up in the knowledge about the receivers' cuts--which mfgrs. did them, which didn't, when, and why.

My 17/20 sn 5850i presents some interesting things when examined closely. The pistol is matching, x-grips (which are revealed by their poor fit--a bit of extra bit of wood slightly proud at the edges of the grip straps)--but the font on the barrel's serial number is different, in that the tops of the 5's have a dip to them, and the 5's are straight across on the rest of the guns numbers. The tone of the barrel's finish is darker than the rest of the components, and its surface is smoother than the rest of the gun, which was bead blasted and refinished over the remaining tiny pits/freckling. The "8.82"'s hash mark/decimal point is very long and each of the numbers was struck at least three times. Haloes? forget it. (The number on the extractor was also forced/over-stamped in its digit 5.) The witness mark looks OK.

I'd figured the barrel had been changed out at some point, and now I can probably deduce that its change, and the refinishing, and maybe the numbers' eccentricities could have happened during an official rework. Whether this would have coincided with the 1920 property stamping's application, I do not know.

I will also heed the suggestion to start a new topic about this gun, later. We can get into the 5 proof marks on the receiver then.