Haha, well there ya go. As we often say about S&W, sometimes you never know . That info was told to me in 1994 (originally said 1984, oops again) by a local collector, it seemed to be true to the various guns I had those times I bothered to look. Right now the only stainless guns I have are two no-dash 686s, both have the V. I do know I had some 66s that had the F stamp and in my faded memory seemed to be more satin than the 686s.

Sorry I added to the confusion.