- Joined
- Apr 8, 2018
- Location
- Coffeeville, TX
Well, after some sad news in another thread about my good friend Tom, who spent all afternoon mentoring me in the art of the relic hunt, plus he had lost his cantankerous 105 WW2 vet father, but good thing I ended up being the bearer of possibly AWESOME news for him today.
And he asked me to make sure @ucvrelics takes note of this and let it be known he's laughing and grinning about it.
This story begins about ten years ago, Tom was sitting in his now closed museum reading, me and others jabbering most likely, and he said he wanted to get a Spencer for his collection. Not too long afterwards, he found a very nice condition one, made in I think he said in 1864 by the serial number, (which is unique all by itself), and it sat rotating between his study at home and display in his museum.
Flash forwards many years, to two years ago, while he was set up at the local reenactment packing his displays, me waiting in line for a tintype of my glorious self, I had a though, asked, and he let me borrow it and be pictured in Confederate uniform with it for laughs. Oh how little did we know!!!!
Flash forward again, about a month ago he told me he heard a book had been written on Confederate markings on collected and captured arms, "Sure" says I, and he asked if I could get him a copy and I told him sure thing, delivering it to him today, and practically gifting it to him free of charge.
Now what spurred this, was apparently I'm guessing at a gunshow he heard of the book and how a "Z" was a Confederate mark, and he's wondered if an "X" on a rifled M1842 was Confederate, (at least I think he said it was a rifled one), and he had been wondering for a good while what a "Z" stamped on his Spencer meant.
Needless to say, he is a VERY thrilled and happy man right now! We looked it over, and compared to the book and it looks right. Not that either of us has read it yet. And seeing how he acquired this Spencer ten or more years ago, long before the 2019 publishing of the well known book, I think it very possible this ain't fake.
Now I ain't an expert, I hope the ones we have chime in, (you too @Grayrock Volunteer ), and I know since that book came out I've felt like many that that means a lot of fakery is probably going on, but the years and so forth, plus Tom getting it at a bargain I bet knowing him, I'm inclined to think this is genuine. But I could be wrong, on these types of things on arms, I look to be wrong.
We got to thinking, given its exceptional condition, it may not of been re-issued. Tom was trying to figure out where it could've been captured, and my hypothesis is the failed Dahlgren Raid, or whatever it was called towards Richmond in 1864. Mainly as I think when glancing through Tom's new favorite book when it came in I think Richmond was where the "Z" was out of.
But I'll shut my trap, and let those of superior knowledge to mine have their say.
And he asked me to make sure @ucvrelics takes note of this and let it be known he's laughing and grinning about it.
This story begins about ten years ago, Tom was sitting in his now closed museum reading, me and others jabbering most likely, and he said he wanted to get a Spencer for his collection. Not too long afterwards, he found a very nice condition one, made in I think he said in 1864 by the serial number, (which is unique all by itself), and it sat rotating between his study at home and display in his museum.
Flash forwards many years, to two years ago, while he was set up at the local reenactment packing his displays, me waiting in line for a tintype of my glorious self, I had a though, asked, and he let me borrow it and be pictured in Confederate uniform with it for laughs. Oh how little did we know!!!!
Flash forward again, about a month ago he told me he heard a book had been written on Confederate markings on collected and captured arms, "Sure" says I, and he asked if I could get him a copy and I told him sure thing, delivering it to him today, and practically gifting it to him free of charge.
Now what spurred this, was apparently I'm guessing at a gunshow he heard of the book and how a "Z" was a Confederate mark, and he's wondered if an "X" on a rifled M1842 was Confederate, (at least I think he said it was a rifled one), and he had been wondering for a good while what a "Z" stamped on his Spencer meant.
Needless to say, he is a VERY thrilled and happy man right now! We looked it over, and compared to the book and it looks right. Not that either of us has read it yet. And seeing how he acquired this Spencer ten or more years ago, long before the 2019 publishing of the well known book, I think it very possible this ain't fake.
Now I ain't an expert, I hope the ones we have chime in, (you too @Grayrock Volunteer ), and I know since that book came out I've felt like many that that means a lot of fakery is probably going on, but the years and so forth, plus Tom getting it at a bargain I bet knowing him, I'm inclined to think this is genuine. But I could be wrong, on these types of things on arms, I look to be wrong.
We got to thinking, given its exceptional condition, it may not of been re-issued. Tom was trying to figure out where it could've been captured, and my hypothesis is the failed Dahlgren Raid, or whatever it was called towards Richmond in 1864. Mainly as I think when glancing through Tom's new favorite book when it came in I think Richmond was where the "Z" was out of.
But I'll shut my trap, and let those of superior knowledge to mine have their say.
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