I bought this 5904 years ago from a guy I used to work with because I thought the nickel slide was unusual and because he was selling it too cheap. The slide looks like an original factory finish but I’ve never seen another one like it and none of the books mention a two tone variation or nickel slide. The 86669 number makes me think it was originally part of a government contract. I’m curious but given the wear on the frame and grip and not having the original box I’m not sure I’m curious enough to want to spring for a letter on this one.

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My favorite color is nickel

Are you sure it’s nickel and not polished steel?

Hard-chromed bling?

I'd be willing to bet you're right . most , if not all , departments put an inventory(?) number on their weapons . Is the # on other spots ?

Or it might be someone slapped another slide on the 5904 at some time . I myself have a 639 I swap the slide out with a 3906 slide I bought . Mostly because I got the slide cheap and also it has adjustable sights . It's h*ll getting old .

My brother bought a 6906 that had been polished. It very much looked like nickel or hard chrome. I bead blasted it back to factory finish.

Rosewood

I can’t tell from the OP pictures but our Department issued 5904’s has stainless steel barrels. If the finish on the barrel matches the slide it might be a 5906 slide on a 5904 frame. Polished CMV steel usually looks a little different than stainless steel. Our Department had a inventory number on the right side of the frame just like on the Op’s pistol.

The slide finish doesn’t look like nickel to me in the photo. Looking at the safety and extractor kind of looks like a stainless steel slide. With the wear to the frame it doesn’t have any matching wear on the slide. To get that nice of finish on a CMV slide you’d probably have to bead blast the slide and parts. The front sight doesn’t show any signs of removal.

Might be an early 3rd gen. I suspect this because of the 2nd gen style rear sight. Very unusual configuration for sure.
Jim

Did it look like this?

No. They had polished the entire slide and frame. The slide now looks factory. The frame is still polished, I am going to cerakoat it once the weather warms up.

It definitely looks nickel as opposed to hard chrome or stainless. It has that gold tone to it you see with nickel. Here it is side by side with a factory nickel Colt Government Model, a standard model 60, and a Bright Stainless Colt Python.

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My favorite color is nickel

That slide looks to be factory nickel. Factory stainless had stainless adjustable sight frames and Nickel had the blue steel adjustable sight frames. But I wonder if it actually came on that frame. Most factory "Pinto" Auto were blue over stainless.

Maybe I am looking at it wrong, but the top of that slide appears to be the bead blasted stainless. Looks to me like someone polished the sides like the 2nd gen guns were done maybe. Surely they didn't nickel the side and leave the top factory? Is that even possible? Or is the top matte nickel? Is that possible?


Edit: I just realized I was looking at Jeppo's picture, not the OP.

Rosewood

I forgot to mention that the slide on this gun isn`t a high polish shiny nickel like you see on the model 39`s and 59`s and so on, but it`s also not a matte nickel like I`ve seen on a handful of model 469`s. It looks to me like the slide was polished to the usual degree that was done for the standard blued slide models before it was finished which makes me wonder if it was a special order where they just took a few slides that were originally intended to be blued and finished them in nickel instead. All the other nickel Smiths I`ve seen were either higher polished than this slide or a matte finish so I can`t think of another model this slide would have been used on.

I bought this gun because it was a bargain and unusual at the same time. I don`t really consider it "letter worthy" but I may have to finally spring for one just to satisfy my curiosity and finally put this question to rest.

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My favorite color is nickel