[diamonback68]

A neighbor just had me look at an old Official Police from her late husband and I can't seem to exactly identify,,,,need help.
Gun is nickel (possibly re-nickel) Colt Official Police 6" 38Spl. which is fairly clear to see on the side of the barrel. On the top of the barrel it says patent dates Aug. ? 1884 July 4, 1905. Is this a regular Official Police Pre-War or what, the patent dates have me a little thrown?

 

[dfariswheel]

I'm not real up on the earlier Colts, (note the qualifier), but at one time Colt marked patent dates on their guns.

I'm not sure just when they stopped, but it was sometime before the war.
I'd guess that this is an early 20's to 30's Official Police.

 

[LWCmdr45]

DB,

Were there any other patent dates? An "Oct. 15, 1926" date was added and since the Army Special wasn't renamed the O.P. until '28, it seems likely it should have the later patent date. (Unless it's a *really* early example. Does this gun happen to have a SN in the 54x,xxx range?)

I believe the barrel patent markings were retained 'til a couple of years after the war. The WWII Commando versions of the O.P. were usually found so marked.

Steve

 

[diamonback68]

LWCmdr45

No, I looked and that is only patent dates on the gun. I forgot one thing, she also had a paper that her husband got from his fellow police buddy when he got the gun. It was an old "carry" permit for the gun from their Captain dated 1937, in would you believe, the state of New Jersey. In the crane the ser.# was something like 685XXX. That's all I know about the gun....any help? Dick

 

[kpmtns]

a 685xxx s/n dates to 1943

 

[diamonback68]

Ya. I got something screwed up on that serial number, I'll have to check with the little old lady and get back to you, but I say the form and it was 1937

 

[Cocked & Locked]

Mine has the dates of "aug 5 1884, july 4 1905, oct 5 1926" ...serial # is 112XX....22lr 6" OP. Folks on this forum dated it 1937.

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C&L