Yes, I have one, as do several others here. I recently had an exchange with Frank Gaetje, who has written several articles for The Rampant Colt, the Colt Collectors Association publication, concerning these guns and Detective Specials. (See Summer 2007, a letter published Fall 2007 and another loosely related article published Winter 2008.) Frank touts them as very rare. While these guns are rare, I have seen too many of them for them to be "Super Rare." Frank claims they letter as Detective Specials, because the three he had, so lettered. I disagreed with that since mine lettered as a Police Positive Special. I believe that Ms. Hoyt has made an editorial decision to letter these guns as Detective Specials, which I believe is highly incorrect, since the name did not exist when the guns were built in 1926. They are what the are, which is Police Positive Specials with 2-inch barrels. (As further evidence, someone here has a 2-inch PPS box.) Frank sent me a copy of the July 1926 advertisement announcing the 2-inch PPS, which I think is determinative of the name issue.
Mine (3400XX) lettered as being shipped December 29, 1926 (late in 1926, but still 1926!) to Russell Sporting Goods Company, with no address available. It was a one-gun shipment, processed under Order Number 12032/100. (I always assumed the "100" might have been the number of guns of that type in the special run. Wonder if I am right on that?) In Frank's article, one of these guns (342099? - can't tell for sure from the scan Frank sent me. I can tell that the order number has a "/25" on the end of it, indicating to me that the number of guns in that run was 25.) is shown with its letter, and the ship date is December 15, 1926. If I am right on reading the serial number, notice how far ahead of mine it is in serial number, yet shipped 14 days earlier. I am guessing that a lot of these guns were shipped late in the year as demand grew in response to the announcement advertisement, and word of mouth.
When I ran onto mine about 30 years ago, I wondered what it was. I checked TBOCF and it mentioned that 2-inch PPS revolvers were "rare," but nothing else, as is too common with TBOCF. That was enough for me and I bought it, wondering still just what it was. The hand-stamped barrel marking really intrigued me. After getting my letter, I never saw another until the last year or two when they came up as a subject on these boards, and, as a result of those discussions, I think I understand more about these neat guns. (Thank you fellow board members!) Now here are two more, with the same ship destination!
One of you guys with the consecutive inventory numbers should buy from or sell to the other! Or both to me!
