Lowest known serial number 686?

[SLT223]

Which one you guys bought this one?
http://www.gunbroker.com/item/631449096

 

[Birdgun]

Wow! Sold for almost $4K. I had no idea any 686 would go for that.

 

[Flipside]

Interesting...

Thanks for posting that nugget of info!

I gather from the description that if someone had a 686 with the serial number AAA00**, they'd have sumthin' speshul?

 

[Breakaway500]

That's Python territory prices. Amazing..

 

[jughed440]

I was under the impression that the earliest 686s have pinned barrels. True???

 

[KEN L]

I don't believe any L frames were ever pinned.

 

[Kernel Crittenden]

I was under the impression that the earliest 686s have pinned barrels. True???

Earlier than #191?

 

[ejjeff]

I wonder if Smith & Wesson will repair what appears to be an "Under clocked "barrel.

 

[Nightowl]

L frames never had pinned barrels or recessed cylinders. I once looked at a 686 with a serial in the low 400's. It had been well used or I would have bought it just for the low serial number.

That is a beautiful gun, but someone really wanted it!

 

[Bosquebass]

what appears to be an "Under clocked "barrel.

Kinda looks that way doesn't it?

 

[longshanx]

It seems that from a collectors standpoint the early s/n guns are highly sought after. Must be in order to pay that kind of money. The seller must have had to pinch himself.

 

[Engine49guy]

Ship dates trump serial numbers for earliest DOB but number chasers drive that niche market,
I have a friend that chases family initials.

 

[Kernel Crittenden]

I understand the interest in a low s/n. The funny thing is, after studying s/n's and ship dates for many years, it was often a common practice, with any three letter prefix, for S&W to start at the higher numbers and work backwards to the lower numbers.

In other words, it was the higher number s/n's that shipped first. This was not a hard and fast rule written in stone, but it is something frequently seen.

The gun in question, in post #1, is obviously an very early gun. Besides the s/n, it's in an old style two-piece box with a handwritten label. That was common in 1980 and 1981. By early 1982 the one-piece box became standard, and the old style two-piece box faded away and was only used occasionally as inventory was used up.

Plus, the gun has the S&W logo on the right side. Like an N-frame. On L-frames the logo moved back and forth for awhile. The earliest L-frames more likely had the logo on the right side. By 1983/1984 it had pretty much settled on the left side. It's still there today.

 

[SLT223]

If someone had asked me what would drive a 686 to $4k, I would have said the Apocolypse before serial number.

Nevertheless, value is in the eye of the beholder. Some of my firearm investments would likey raise eyebrows around here.