Originally Posted by JSR III

I think that perhaps some folks misunderstand what a historical letter is all about.

As has been stated, the beginning of most letters is a background on the model that you have asked about. Perhaps when it came into production or why, maybe how many have been produced if no longer in production etc. Then the letter goes into the specifics of your gun, date shipped, where it shipped to and if you are lucky, it will tell you the configuration that the gun left as. As others have said, this lets you know that the gun you are holding (as an example) "shipped with a 6" barrel, had a blue finish. wore gold medallion diamond stocks and had a Patridge front sight."

This is a historical letter based on information found in the S&W records. It is not an appraisal or an estimate of value, that comes from an appraiser not a historian. I think that whether the emblem was etched or stamped or roll stamped or put on with an electric pencil is a little like "you say potayto and I say pototto."

The information in the SC of S&W for the most part was taken from books written by Roy Jinks. Even errors in the original works were transcribed forward. As wonderful as the authors are, Jim and Rick never worked at S&W to my knowledge. Roy Jinks was the company historian for like 40 years and also served as Service Manager among other positions. There is no one on the planet that I know of that has his knowledge or first hand experience or knows more about Smith and Wesson's and their origins. Had Roy Jinks not purchased the factory records when the Wesson family no longer owned the company and was no longer interested in paying the storage fees for those stored records, there wouldn't be a factory history letter today.

Rather than bashing the letter or its author, I would guess that if you had returned the letter with an explanation about etching versus stamping, that Roy would have gladly corrected the letter to your liking. Even with all that Roy knows he cannot possibly remember every detail about every firearm that the factory ever produced and especially those of limited production and perhaps appeal. I have been collecting S&W's for about 50 years and have never heard of this particular gun. It maters to you because you have an affinity to NC and perhaps to the State Police.

Also remember one thing, just having any letter signed by Dr. Roy Jinks (his autograph) regardless of the contents is most likely worth the price that you paid.