Hello again folks, and thank you Jim for your help:
> "ThomasH,
>
> The serial number is the one stamped on the bottom of the grip butt.
> The other numbers are assembly numbers.
>
> AWT4873 = 1987.
> 4J2818 = 1971/72.
>
> Jim
>
I received my copy of The Standard Catalog of Smith & Wesson today, and I cannot find my serial numbers anywhere in it.
I have checked the middle section of the numbered models and read the sections on the Model 38 and Model 49, but I don't see any information about my serials numbers and what they might mean there.
I have also poured over the section in the rear that attempts to date the guns by their serial numbers but I see no examples of serial numbers like mine for either pistol!?! I see "J prefix" numbers but none like the 4J2818 serial number. And I haven't found a single reference to an AWT serial number like my AWT4873!?!
Am I doing something wrong? Is there something about these numbers or the book that I don 't understand? Where did you find the information about my serial numbers, if I may ask?
Thoroughly confused, as usual,
- Thomas