You mentioned the style of ampersand on the barrel. It appears to me as identical to the one on my 357 shipped in 1950. Perhaps you were fooled by my poor photo?
BTW- this shot was taken with my brand new (just arrived today) 14.6 megapixel Pentax (Tim Allen grunt).
There are two possible factory rework stamps. One is simply 2 59 and I assume this refers to February of 1959 as the date for some work. There is also a diamond right next to a letter B. Perhaps this indicates a reblue? Is this necessarily associated with the 2/59 date?
The stocks that came on the gun are not original and are stamped with the serial 246623. From the SCSW I figure this is early 1964 and this is interesting in that there is a name (ML Lane) crudely written on the inside of one panel along with "June 5, 1964" which fits nicely with the probably date of manufacture on the stocks. But I doubt that replacement stocks put on during a rebuild would carry a different serial so these must have been taken from another gun and maybe Mr. Lane has no connection to this revolver but was issued or owned S246623 and these stocks somehow got swapped onto my gun.
Am I wrong about the ampersand? Any other ideas about this 357 with a serial from early 1955 that Roy says actually shipped in March of 1957 but has frame that shouldn't have been used at that time? I have considered the replaced gun or frame scenario and it makes sense. A 4-screw frame is used in 2/59 to replace a damaged one from this earlier gun and the old serial is restamped.
I do wonder a bit about the serial being so early for a 1957 date. Two years delay in shipped seems unusual for a fairly popular gun but it's not impossible.