Friend of mine has a .38 Safety Hammerless 4th Model. Family info says that it belonged to his great grandfather who was a constable in one of our litte towns here in the New York boonies. It is a 4 inch bbl ... nickel finish ( more on that in a minute ) and black hard rubber S&W grips.
I took my SCSW over to his place and we looked it up. His ser.# is 2016** , and the catalog says the range is 116003 to 22000 ending in 1907. I told him & showed him in the catalog that I would guess and a very rough guess that it would probably be around 1905. Its in about fair shape and doesn't seem to be a rare example. As to the finish ..... catalog says that nickels had blued trigger guards, and his is nickel like the rest of the gun.
I told him I thought it was really a great old gun and that while there may be quite a few of them this is the only one that belonged to his great grandad. He's kicking around having it refinished and gone over by a gunsmith. Again ... my opinion that it was up to him as it's not terribly collectable that I could see. Either way he's keeping it to pass along ... and I told him that was a great idea. I also said I'd check here to make sure I wasn't giving him a bum steer as to rarity etc.
Anyone that wants to school me up on any of the above would be very welcome by me and I'm sure him when I pass it along.
Thanks.

A nickeled trigger guard, like the rest of the gun, would usually indicate that the gun has been refinished sometime in it's past, as original trigger guards would be blue for all safety hammerless modesl. Has the hammer been nickeled, also? The original finish on the hammer would be case hardening, so if it's now nickel, like the TG, then a refinish is certain in the past. A factory historical letter will tell what the finish was on the gun when it was shipped new. Ed#15

I think Ed was probably wondering whether or not the latch was nickel, not the hammer, as of course, the Safety Hammerless would not have a hammer. If the latch is nickel like the trigger guard, a re-finish is very probable.

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1891SingleShot

You're right, I should have said latch, not hammer, and the latch shouldbe blue, if original. Ed.

I kinda figured you meant the latch ..... a little hard to check the hammer ... and thanks for the input. I doubt that he'll be interested in lettering it ... unless he suspects that his great grandad might have ordered it from the factory. I'll mention it to him though.
How close do you think I was on the date of manufacture ??
Oh ... and the latch was nickel as well I think. I'll check next time I see him.

The shipping dates are goofy - 199065 shipped in 3/1908, so this one is probably a little later, but not necessarily...

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Peter #2091

Light comes on ! I was confusing date of manufacture with shipping date. Once I saw your post it was obvious ...... They had to make 'em before they can shippem. I was looking at that 1908, and thinking ... " how can it be 1908 when production ended in 1907 ??? "
Same way you get "new" 2010 Chevys' in 2011.
Thank you guys for the input .... I'll pass it along to my friend.