It is my understanding that S&W did not have in-house plating facilities at the time these revolvers were manufactured in the1870's. The plating was done by a subcontractor such as King. As such, S&W did not have complete control of the plating process and that is the reason there are plating anomalies. Some of these are plating of triggers, trigger guards and hammers, etc.

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Mike Maher #283