New here to the forum. Finally got a 3rd gen Smith the other day. A nice 5906, lightly used police trade in. Was looking it over though once I got home and I see that it has a “U” stamped above the mag release. I was told this could be a dealer sample or something. I called Smith and they said though it was sold in ‘95 then came back to Smith and resold in 2000, and that’s why it is stamped with a U.

Does anyone have any insight? Is it less desirable to have the “U” stamp?

Thanks for any help.

Yes mine has a U stamp bought it several years ago rarely fired no holster wear . As far as I know U doesn't hurt value 5906 isn't rare collectable. congratulations on a good ol pistol.

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^^^^Where is it stamped?

right side of the trigger pin they may have stamped other areas

On I see it now. Do you know what the stamp means?

you have it right factory stamp for used , I read an archived thread few years ago on the subject

Interesting. I thought all the 5906’s were used by now. Must have been ones that came back to the factory and kicked back out then back in the day?

I wish I could find out what the "U" stamp means. My recently purchased 5906 has a this stamp left of the serial and model number stamping. This pistol appears to be new but the VUVxxxx serial number dates it to Mar of 1999, according to S&W.

It was probably considered a factory demo and as such has to be sold as used by the factory.

Two different dates - Manufacture Date and Ship Date. Which is your VUV?

And as an aside, I checked a 6906 VCH S/N twice by my mistake and got 2 different answers 1994 and 1995 - so consistency of results from Manufacture date requests may be another variable.

For reference, 2 different 5906 SKU 108176U VUV59xx & VUV59xy come back last week from SW as Manufacture Date 1997. But Ship date is 1-11-2019 - Per SW they were returned after Show or Other Promotion and have to be sold as Used. Not sure where they were for 20+ years.

As to U on Frame at front of trigger guard - a letter at that position is not uncommon - Inverted T is also common - no clue as to whether that Letter U correlated to U suffix on SKU or Used pistol or as to what inverted T means. Curious if anyone can shed light on these markings

I don't feel this pistol has even been shot, which makes me wonder if I should shoot it??

The 5906 was produced for 10 years so there are plenty of them in the wild. I’m not sure how much appreciation there will be over the short and medium term.

I understand but I doubt S&W will ever make an all steel auto again of this quality.

Shoot it!

No offense to the 5906, but it's not the most graceful or elegant pistol, nor is it the most accurate. It IS among the most durable and reliable. And as a bonus, it has one of the best trigger resets.

The benefits of the gun is that it's gonna be a great shooter for a long time, not that it's going to become a collectable.

True, S&W may never make another model like this (although we can always hope!), but also consider, there were other, more collectible S&W guns from that period.