Hi Jim,
Yeah I know, I have that catalog too. But, I have several 38 lemon squeezers shipped from the mid twenties to the late thirties with factory letters saying they shipped with hard rubber grips. According to the data base I have been collecting the later the gun shipped the more likely they would have wood grips. Sales were very slow during the last half of the 30s so maybe they were using up there hard rubber blanks and switching to I frame wood gradually. Somethings we will never know, but we do have the factory records available through Roy Jinks and thats really all we can go on.
The factory started installing the silver medallions starting about 1929, but I have never seen a lettered 38 Safety that mentioned medallions. I'm pretty sure that it could have been done as a special order non cataloged item like a special short barrel or a lanyard ring.
I know that I have a pair of 32 Safety grips with a small silver medallions in them that I'm sure are factory. The medallions are the size of the gold ones in the special order pearl and ivory grips. 32 Safetys were never shipped with anything but hard rubber as a standard grip and never cataloged a wood grip, but I've got the set of grips.
Never say never with Smith & Wesson, especially from about 1900 to WW II
cflier

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Mark Connot