Originally Posted by hsguy

I am assuming that the gun is a 38 SW Victory model. The marks indicate the gun is an Australian gun that was rebuilt in 1954 at the Lithgow facility.

The FTR means "factory thorough repair" and 54 is the year of the FTR. "L" indicates Lithgow, "MA" is Munitions Australia, D broad arrow D is the Australian military marking and as I understand it the bottom number is the percent of a particular lot of guns inspected. You often also find a broad arrow on the bottom of the frame in front of the trigger guard. Thes guns are normally import marked, the most common seems to be Vega Sac which stands for Vega arms in Sacramento California. These guns were normally refinished as part of the rebuild and usually appear to be in very nice condition but are refinished.