I have a nickel plated, 5 screw, 4 inch pinned barrel with REGULATION POLICE, 38 S & W CTG. marked on the right side of the barrel, and SMITH & WESSON on the left side. There are no S&W trade marks on either side of the frame. The very low (four digit) serial number appears on the fore strap, barrel flat, and the rear of the cylinder. The hammer and trigger appear to be blued. The gun is fitted with the correct shouldered wood stocks. Unfortunately I have lost any good natural light for a picture, but I will provide pictures tomorrow, and would invite any comments. This might be a candidate for the S&W factory letter.

The .38 Regulation Police revolvers were given their own serial number sequence, while the .32 Long RPs were numbered in the .32 Hand Ejector series. About 55000 of the .38 RPs were manufactured between 1917 and 1940, when production was suspended in favor of WWII contracts; that number includes the round-butt, short-barrel .38/32 Terrier models produced in the late 1930s. Your gun is probably 1917 or 1918 production, at which time the factory was not putting S&W logos on its revolvers.

The stocks may be pencil-numbered to the frame with the same four-digit ID. If so, they are very likely to be original.

I'm looking forward to seeing pictures. I hope they work out!

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David Wilson

I'm unable to see any penciled numbers on the inside of the stocks, just the patent mark on the bottom of the left. The condition of the stocks do seem to match the condition of the gun. My comment about the factory letter was mainly directed at the nickel finish. My limited research did not turn up any information on whether S&W used that finish on these guns. Maybe you could enlighten me on that issue.

Attached Images

	reg pol 001.jpg (140.6 KB, 134 views)
	reg pol 002.jpg (133.1 KB, 135 views)

This is my poor example. SN 8693 with equally poor pictures.
DW

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"NUTS"

That clears up my question. Beautiful piece, DW. Yours has the S&W trademark, but is missing the deteriation of the finish like mine (and the dings on the stocks). I'm seeing some realy nice examples on this forum, and your RP is one of them.