From looking at some of my factory returned guns, I can see little uniformity in stampings. My guess is that each gunsmith had their own method and even that may have varied by how busy they were or what day it was.
One of My Model 1903's was returned in 1945 and received a diamond on the grip-frame, diamond under barrel, star at the serial number, and date stamp. The 22/32 and 32 1903 are the same era, but have different ejector rod knobs. It is obvious that the barrel was replaced on the 1903, since it has a later style ejector rod knob. It was obviously refinished, but lacks the <B> mark.
My guess is that over the years there were as many methods of stampings as there were gunsmiths at S&W.
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Gary
SWCA 2515
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