Friends,

I had a 4-inch barreled Colt's Commando .38SPL until it went missing after a car fire. The insurance company wants to know when it was built by Colt.

ALL that I know is "during WWII". - It had a WD & "the flaming bomb" in front of the hammer on the left side of the frame.
NO "US Property" stamp nor any other indication of what agency owned/used it.
The only other markings that I remember, other than the SN, was what looked like an upside down triangle in front of the trigger guard & a (OBVIOUSLY/crudely ) hand-stamped "14" on the bottom side of the frame or butt of the revolver

The serial number is: 19653.
It was "parkerized" in DARK gray but it did not LOOK like "manganese parkerizing" as it did not appear to have ever been FLAT BLACK. - It was a darker gray than the M1 rifles that I've owned/seen, so I'm NOT at all sure of what the finish was.

Can anyone tell me WHEN the revolver was made OR any other information about it??

yours, tex

http://www.proofhouse.com/colt/index.html

there was a bunch of them went on the market a few years ago, down south. I want to say alabama. Issued to the national guard at start of WWII, not enough 1911's to go around. That was rectified and they went into storage. Later ended up with another entity, and sold on the open market. The ones without the kraft box i seem to remember were about 800bucks, went somewhere at or over 1000 with the box.
They were nice revolvers, basically looked like new guns, never used.

watch4bear; RoninPhx,

THANKS guys for trying to help. - The insurance company wants an exact year of manufacture, which I have not so far discovered.
(Based on the relatively low 5-digit serial number, my "little brother", who has forgotten more than I know about firearms, believes that the revolver MIGHT have been built in 1942.)

yours, tex

1942 according to Colt.
Year of Manufacture 1942 Model COMMANDO REVOLVER

https://www.colt.com/serial-lookup

http://www.paulsgunroom.com/Colt_Commando.php

they weren't a bad investment

https://www.rockislandauction.com/d...commando-double-action-revolver-with-box

Swifty52,

THANK YOU. = I'll tell the insurance guys.

yours, tex