44.40 revolver serial number question

[Sonja]

I was given a gift by a friend and I am told that it is a Belgium Copy of a Smith & Wesson Frontier style First Model Double Action Revolver in .44-40 Winchester cartridge. There are proof marks in several places as well as the number 33. Is 33 the serial number? Can anyone tell me what these marks are under the grips? Also the marks that look like 77? Does this gun have any value?

Im trying to get my pictures to post...

 

[Sonja]

pictures of 44.40

 

[glowe]

Welcome to the Forum. It is very tough to get much detail on foreign copies of S&W revolvers. Several countries made them and they normally found their way to America in the duffle bags of returning soldiers from WWI and WWII.

About the only consistent thing I have noticed is that Belgium copies all have the oval ELG stamped on the gun. It is usually on the rear of the cylinder, but may be found even elsewhere. Interesting enough that there were countries that copied the Belgium copies in the late 1800s. If your revolver has no ELG, chances are that it was made in another country.

Maybe someone will have a documented copy with the same stampings as yours that can help you with some additional information.

 

[Jim Watson]

I think the "33" is a batch number. A lot of those small makers (and some not so small, like Remington) started over at 1 every time they got a new contract for guns. So yours might be no. 33 out of 50, or 100, or whatever some distributor thought he could sell. That is as close as you will get to a serial number.

The stamps are not clear, but I don't see any obvious Belgian proofs. Looks like a crown in there, it might be German. Maybe Spanish.

The J D (I think that is an unevenly struck D, not a U.) may be a maker's mark, but I don't recall who.

 

[opoefc]

Unless your copy of a S&W has an oval stamp with a crown and "Leg" in the oval ( The proof stamp for the Leige, Belgium proof house ) on the cylinder or barrel, it was probably not made in Belgium. Guns with the Leige proof stamps, if the stamps are not fake, only tell you that the gun was proofed there, not that it was made in Belgium. Many foreign makers took there better guns to Belgium for proofing, as it was the "Rolex" stamp pf quality known to the market place. The marks you on your gun see may never be deciphered completely but are most likely marks of the fitter's , assemblers and bean counters, wherever the gun was made. Value is minimum for these S&W copies and I would not want to shoot a 44-40 round in it as I'm sure the metal in that old cylinder was never heat treated to stand the pressure of a 44-40 round for very long. Ed.