[Schuren]

15 years ago I bought a 1909 Navy (No. 24028) . When I got the Archive Letter I was in for a surprise. The letter describes this revolver as “Factory Engraved” with “USMC # 47”. But my revolver is marked USN (Anchor) 45 D.A. N[SUP]o[/SUP] 47. The Mullin books tells us the Navy 1909 were made in 1911 with numbers startung at 53301.
Has anybody got an early Navy in that range - with an Archive Letter?... or some information on this early 1909.

The grips are from a 1917... it came (totally wrong) with nice hard-rubber grips.

I just found information about No. 24040 on the net. But it has no archive letter.
https://www.rockislandauction.com/d...olt-us-navy-model-1909-double-action-revolver

 

[thecoltguy]

Here is one from the same shipment and letters the same. It has the standard width grip frame like the Navy models do and is marked USN but the letter shows USMC. These 85 guns look like all of the other Navy 1909's in design but serialize in the lower range of the USMC revolvers which serialized in from 23,101-26,300 range with many gaps in their production. I would assume that these 85 revolvers saw use with the Navy as the Marine production used a special order smaller grip frame. Since the Marine production superseded the Navy production we would assume that some of the gaps in production serial numbers were used to produce these 85 revolvers. One can also assume that these 85 were sent to the Navy Department ahead of the regular production run. The standard USN production was in the 52,000-53,000 range and the Navy contract was for 1000 revolvers. The butt markings included the USN with an anchor and the caliber marking .45 and then numbered 1 thru 1000.




This is a 1909 Navy from the standard time production period:






This is a 1909 USMC with the narrow grip frame for comparison. The butt markings included the USMC and the markings from 1 thru 1300. These were all purchased through the Navy Department beginning in May of 1909.

 

[Schuren]

This is the information I needed!! Thank you very much!
So we have got two of the "Early Navy" Revolvers.
Peter
Your USMC is a dream....

 

[thecoltguy]

Yes, While we don't know if there were any other early shipments we do know that at least 85 of these were made and shipped. I just added one of the later Navy models for comparison.