Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave Noreen
From all the photos I've saved, I see the sort of ampersand symbol appearing very regularly once the J.G. in oval stamp of Jim Geary begins appearing in about the 162xxx range. I see the ampersand symbol pretty regularly into the 180xxx range.
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Dave, Thanks for taking the time to pull all those together. It's more than likely I have had other guns with the '&' on them, and just never noticed it before, perhaps, in part due to the tiny font. I may have bought and sold a dozen or more Parkers over the years, and now can only wonder if any of them were also so marked. I consciously shy away from the 180xxx range for the lack of factory records but recall a BHE, 184xxx if memory serves, which a friend and fellow member has. I'll ask him to check. Your post, now, has me leaning towards Meriden as the source, rather than the remote chance an independent gunsmith used the mark.
edit: Dave, I just looked at four guns between 151xxx and 159xxx, which bear the "&" mark, adjacent to Geary's marks; two 20ga Damascus 151xxx, both with two dots; a 28ga 153,xxx; and a 28ga 159,xxx. I guess I'm not surprised that in more than 60 years of owning Parkers, I was not more observant.