Trying to find info for Shotgun

[George Lander]

Originally Posted by Barry E. Scheetz

Greetings. I have been reading some of the posts and have been impressed with the depth of knowledge of the responses that I have seen. I have gotten into the Parker collecting through the back door. A few years ago, a former colleague of mine left an early production back lock hammer gun to me in his will when he passed. the serial number is O1677. Recently I was fortunate enough to find and purchase another early manufacture back lock hammer gun, serial O925. Both of these I understand were the lowest quality guns manufactured as designated by the "O" prefix on the serial number.

I am particularly interested in the latest purchase since it carries 20" barrels and is marked "Penn RR #29" and has the name "Fred Gren" inscribed on the trigger guard. I am assuming that the name is the PRR railroad policeman use used the shotgun.

How common on these coach gun? The gun has a "T" stamped above the serial number on the water table. Is there any significance to this marking?

Thanks in advance for any input that you all can provide.

Barry

Barry: A word of caution is needed here. Shotguns marked in the way that you describe are more often than not counterfeit. Cheap Belgian made doubles from the late 1800's & early 1900's were sold by companies such as Sears Roebuck, J.C. Penny, Western Auto & others. These often had names on them that were similar to Parker Brothers (Bros) and were sold for ten or twenty dollars. They were most serviceable for the hunter who had not a lot of money to spend.

Unfortunately many of these later were used by those with no scruples to defraud the buyer. They often did this by cutting off the barrels and placing names on them such as you describe. The only way for us to tell you for sure if what you have is a genuine Parker Brothers is to post some close up pictures. I hope, for your sake, that I am wrong.

Best Regards, George