Larry,

I guess I wasn't explicit in my writing. My point was that from what I had seen the 'C' had the short tear drops and lower grades didn't have them at all. Grades higher than 'C' had the full tear drops. I look at $250 grade guns as the highest of graded guns which have the full tear drop. I don't know the $$$$ grade of the gun shown but I would have equated it to a 'C' based on the tear drops. What I don't know is what dollar value a 'C' would be; maybe $175?

When it comes to dollar grades I don't think we have a real solid recognition method. I have seen guns call $250 grade guns that have light engraving and wood that isn't exceptional. When I look at dollar lifters and they don't have tear drops I assume they are lower than $200 dollar grade, but that is just my thinking and I am probably wrong?

Maybe owners of dollar grade guns could post pictures and ID's to help understand the designation; do the guns have order records with the price listed too? I think the dollar range guns run from $50 - $300?

I was hoping to get owners of Hammer guns to post some pictures under engraving with dollar grade or letter grade to better understand the different grades. I find them very interesting and see one in my future.

Larry & Robin, how the dollar grade correlates with the later number (or letter) grades I am not especially sharp on - especially as Bruce mentions "before discounts" which were common - but as Robin points out, the grade 3 or D-grade had no 'teardrop', the grade 5 or B grade had a 3/4 length teardrop, the grade 6 or A grade had the full-length teardrop and the grade 4 or C grade had the shortest teardrop but, unlike the grade 3 (D), the C at least had the beginning of a teardrop.

Robin,
I agree the dollar grades can be very confusing. I think the early (1870's) guns before the letter grading had much less engraving and the bolsters were somewhat less ornate. My 1878 under lifter 3251 has been called a $250.00 gun by some of our members who know far more than I yet it has much less engraving than some lower grade guns from just a few years later. I was told that there is not enough information to do a letter on these early guns which is too bad as that would end any speculation.

Here is a lifter 4558 found in stock book 1, that I believe to be a $250 grade. I'm not sure but I think it is. I have a letter on it and Ron Kirby couldn't grade it but said he was sure it was either a $250 or $200 grade based on the stock book notation of "extra bead".

It has a 6 stamp on the barrel flats but that it early for a grade stamp. Some think it indicates the Damascus is 6 blade but I posted it to our resident damascus expert and was told it wasn't 6 blade. So, I don't know what the 6 is?http://parkerguns.org/forums/C:%5CUs...50-4%20001.jpg

Here is another dollar grade, 3306 found in stock book 1. Because of the light engraving I do not believe this to be a $250 grade but it does have the full tear drop (extra bead) so I guess its a $200 grade?

Those are all the pictures I have of dollar grade Parkers. I hope others will post some dollar grade pictures to add to this collection please?

Ok I'm not sure how much this adds to the conversation but this is a copy of the drawing that was in a post 3/15/06 on the old site. I believe it was posted by Chris Lien and I think I recall him saying it came from Oscar Gaddy but I could be wrong. What I do remember is that these sketches were compiled from later hammer guns. I believe they are from after Parker went to the letter grading system.

Larry,That is a great sketch.Thanks for posting it!

Should we move some of these great pictures to the engraving catagory?

I hope so Dave

Robin and Larry great photos. These guns I believe have allot more to offer in the engraving dept. as far as variation