What is the best "vintage" in a Colt Official Police?

[AirCommando]

I do have an Official Police, 1961 vintage...

 

[DCWilson]

It's not like there is a "bad" vintage for OPs, but I find myself partial to the ones produced in the late '30s and immediate postwar period. After 1947 (I think) you go to the single yoke retention screw instead of the figure-8 plunger and clamp screw system that I prefer on grounds of looks.

Commandos are kind of cool just because they are plain-wrap OPs, just as the Highway Patrolman is a kind of plain-wrap .357 Magnum in the S&W world. A Commando is now harder to find than an OP of roughly the same era simply because of limited original production. I am lucky enough to have a couple, one of each barrel length.

 

[mg357]

I had a Colt Official Police that was made in 1957 it was a nice gun.

 

[Muddyboot]

I think the ones made in the 1930's are the best. Here is one with a
cut job on the barrel.

 

[Walter Rego]

I'm partial to the pre-WWII guns. They still had the checkered (or "checked" as Colt's described them) hammer spur, trigger face and cylinder release, and the half moon type front sight. Post war guns transitioned to serrated hammer & triggers, plain cylinder releases and plastic stocks, and later, to the ramped front sight blades. Certainly functional, but lacking the charm due to the post war cost cutting measures.
Here's a couple that I like. I'm waiting on a letter on the 1943 .38, I too would have thought that all production would be of Commandos and 1911A1's with very few civilian models coming off the assembly line at the height of the war. I suspect that it will letter to a police agency somewhere, they probably still had some pull with Colt to have orders filled.