Clarification:

There is only one known example of a VS gun and it is almost certainly the result of a stamping error. There are dozens of SV stamped guns, many of which went to the Navy, beginning in January, 1945. When the war ended in August, the factory began to retool for civilian production and the first guns out the door with the commercial blue finish were M&P revolvers with SV and S prefixes, as Sal suggested. The SCSW indicates the SV prefix started at about SV769000, but known examples have numbers as low as SV732261 (shipped to the Navy on June 29, 1945).

The V was dropped in September, 1945, with production of the first S prefix revolver at S811120, but higher numbers still carry the SV prefix. As mentioned previously in these pages, the highest SV gun I've found has the number SV813132, although the mismarked VS gun is slightly higher.

I agree with Sal about the difficulty of finding S prefix M&P revolvers in "pristine" condition with the box. I own several at the 95% level and a few at 98%, some with, some without boxes. But you don't find them every day, nor are they cheap (usually) when you do.

__________________
Jack
SWCA #2475, SWHF #318