[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]

It clearly is N not M, and I am now puzzled that I ever thought otherwise. Not sure on enlarging the photograph if the S is really S or might be 8?

Like I said, I need to learn to read.

Gene, I recollect others in this forum warning against over reliance in using patent use numbers in dating guns. We assume that they were applied in chronological sequence starting at ***1 but they may have been issued in blocks or batches.

To take a case in point, if on the J. V. Needham gun I show above the J. N. PATENT stamp refers to the Needham’s ejector patent 1205 of 1874, the 676 would seem an absurdly low use number for an important Patent then in force for over 10 years.

On the Reilly the stamp could have been partly struck down when the gun was sleeved and the action blued. The number might have been 13** or 13***. Or is the S part of an alphanumeric sequence that started A***1?

Or is it just 813?

Last edited by Parabola; 12/07/22 03:38 PM.