Your friend must have owed you a couple of $100, or more?. If your 24 has condition, the value may be $350-400. That string of years when they made them with the joined barrels and had the barrel selector on the hammer were the best in my opinion.
Some collect those little sweeties, but most enjoy them for their versatile use afield. 260Remguy posted earlier the Beartooth site as having a good write-up:
http://www.beartoothbullets.com/tech_notes/archive_tech_notes.htm/1 . Also there is a 24 Savage site that has a wealth of info, but you have to dig for it. savage24.com
Savage and Stevens used inspector date codes (referred to as a "lever boss" code when talking Savage 99). They stamped these on most all their firearms from 1949 to about 1971. On your 24 you'll find the stamp at the chamber end of the shotgun barrel and on the frame. It will be an oval with a one or two digit number followed by a letter. The letters are the year of production.
Started with A in 1949 and onward to 1971 - no O and no Q.
If you want to sell it, take some good pics and post it in the 24 classifieds. If priced right they usually don't last long.
