Smith and Wesson 38 Special Revolver Serial Number: How to Find Your Gun's Model and History

After the Second World War, S&W began using one-letter prefixes on several models of revolvers. This practice was kick-started in April, 1942, when they ran out of numbers for the prewar .38 Military & Police revolvers and production had shifted to the wartime effort of providing military revolvers to the U.S. and UK armed forces.

smith and wesson 38 special revolver serial number

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In 1983, the discreet serial prefixes were discarded in favor of a scheme that was common to all S&W revolvers, regardless of frame size or caliber. This new number scheme used three letters and four numeric digits. This practice is still in use.

The key point to remember for Gun Values Board queries is that if your S&W revolver has a letter in front of the serial number, that letter is part of the number. When posting a S&W serial number in a quest for a shipping date, do not fail to include the letter. If you leave it out, we will most likely misidentify your revolver and will not be able to accurately estimate the year it left the factory.

George Your gun, with that roll stamp on the barrel, was made no later than c. 1913. That model went out of production in 1929. There were no letter prefixes to any S&W revolver serial number before WWII. Would you please repeat your question and supply pictures of this revolver (including one of the butt) in the S&W section of this website? Here is a link: -wesson/ Thanks. JP

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