possible chance at this gun. Any list of known SF PD schofields ? It falls in the range and serials on back look same font size
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Nice Schofield. I think that I have seen this gun somewhere. Probably on an auction site. I was born and raised in SF. Several of my family are cops. I even have a Police gun from the 1880's that is marked with "SGT WADE" SFPD on the backstrap. It's a Colt conversion. I honestly don't know much about the Schofield SF guns. I can tell you that finding records that date to that period is near impossible due to the 1906 earthquake and fire that burned most of the records. The Police Department did manage to save some of the records during the fire but most of those are limited to current records that date to 1900-06. The earlier records were lost. My Colt Conversion is beat up like a beat Cop piece. I cherish it. Yours looks like it sat in the Chiefs office.

In 1877 The "Sand Lot Riots" happened in the City of San Francisco, over the Chinese immigrants. To put down the riots, the "Committee of Safety " ( AKA: Vigilantes ) were furnish 300 Schofield revolvers and 100 American revolvers from the Calif.State Militia Armory. The guns had been obtained by the Governor, for the Militia (State Guard ) from the US Army arsenal at Benicia, CA. The guns were marked with numbers on their back straps , 1 to 400. After the riots were put down the guns were returned to the State and later sold as surplus, circa 1920s. The posters pictured Schofield,number 198, is one of the guns. Collectors refer to these guns as "San Francisco Police Guns" however technically the Committee of Safety was never the San Francisco Police Dep't. , but that's splitting hairs! Number 198 has been in several auctions in the last couple years. Sales of these guns do not seem to bring any significant premium, as I think few buyers are aware of the SFPD connection. I have several in my collection and prices I paid were driven by condition more than the SFPD history. Ed.

I'm pretty aware of the various vigilance committees in San Francisco's old history. In fact, I work not one block from the original site of the 1856 Fort Gunnybags in downtown SF where the disgruntled citizens strung up some dirty politicians. I'm a 5th generation Californian and my prized piece in my collection is my 3 great grandfather's Parker hammer gun that he used on the farm in Hollister CA. Adding this to my collection would be pretty cool for a California history geek like myself.

I'm Also aware of at least 2 schofields known to be "SFPD" or militia guns have traded at auction for over $10k recently. But they were in MUCH nicer shape with great bluing. I'd love to find the auction result of this piece. I know the owner and would like to enter a negotiation with him for it but don't want to insult him on price.

FWIW, that may be an indicator that it was rack stamped in the same era as the gun was made as that was the common font of the day however, the back strap stamp would have been placed by the SFPD or milita and not S&W.

It would also not be unrealistic for a faker (assuming that they knew what they were doing) to use the same style and font as the serial number on the gun to make it look real..

We have seen over the years where attempts at faking have been done by those not so clever and the numbers look nothing alike.

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James Redfield
LM #497

Rack number notwithstanding, that is a nice looking martial Schofield. If there is no premium for the SFPD connection and the price is reasonable that would be an excellent piece to add to a S&W collection.

Correct the arsenal at Benecia would have stamped these guns 1-300 and supplied them to the militia in San Francisco. "SFPD" is technically not correct but close enough and what they have come to be known as.