There are no numbers anywhere on the forend. The fit of the iron to the wood and the matching wood in both grain and aged color to the stock lead me to believe it is the original.

While the engraving is somewhat odd I have no difficulty believing all is original and as it left the factory. First, I do not find the engraving anywhere on the gun to be of very high quality. Second, and the clincher for me, is the border engraving on the Locks, barrels, action, and around the toplever screw is identical. I would have expected more engraving on the locks but wonder if this gun wasn't a prototype or some other "one off" edition. It just seems "right". I do think the price estimates are way on the high side. If there was an active collector market for Scotts then variations might warrant significantly higher prices but there is not such a group. It is a nice early Scott that probably has a lot of shooting life left in it.

They are neat and kind of rare, I have one and there was one in DGJ(DGJ Autumn 2003 vol 14,issue 3, pages 23,24,25, serial 6531, it has barrel "wings" same shape forend release as yours(not quite as much engraving), just scroll engraving on plates, very nice gun.) Here is mine...
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-N...0/DSC_0264.JPG
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-Q...0/DSC_0270.JPG
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-r...0/DSC_0266.JPG
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-n...0/DSC_0268.JPG

Great gun Ross. Those pups on the locks look pretty playfull....:)