Early Winchester 1894?

SP45

I see that the blue book now lists the polishing room record numbers next to the old generally accepted numbers for production dates. The 53,941 number is to the right of 147,684 which was thought to be the cutoff number for the antique period guns. The blue book still lists a separate category for value for guns with serial numbers below 148,000 and these values are quite a bit higher than later serial numbers. My question is are collectors just going with the older numbers for production dates and just ignoring the new information. I never paid much attention to this until I got a gun in the questionable serial number range.

Bert H.

I can tell you that the "knowledgeable" collectors are using the 53941 serial number as the correct (verified) antique cut-off. The less knowledgeable collectors and a large number of the dealers are still trying to use the erroneous 147684 serial number originally published by George Madis. As more time passes, the general populace will learn/know what the correct number is. Be advised that the Model 1894 is not the only model with this same issue.