Curious about halo's

[alanint]

It is not terribly unusual for dies to create a "ghost" strike when hit hard, as the die would tend to bounce and come back down onto the metal slightly off where it was originally struck.

That being said, I too worry about what I'm seeing on the barrel. It looks like the serial number was "freshened" using a slightly different font of numbers. Artificial "halos" were then added to make it look original. The C/M proof also looks buffed and not at all sharp by comparison.

I say a reblued barrel, which was then freshened to look original.

[Norme]

Hi Glenn, Double struck Navy inspection marks are not unusual, and the barrel serial could possibly be legit, halos are notoriously difficult to judge from photos. However, when this gun was on a certain notorious dealer's website last year, I judged the magazine to be force matched.
Regards, Norman