Colt Engraved Third Generation

[cactus creek willie]

Howdy All - I just purchased a 3rd generation Engraved Nickle SAA with I think Ivory grips. The seller had this listed for an estate so really does not have complete information and there is no Archive letter to go with it. I would like to find out if this is a custom shop Colt engraved and custom grip pistol without doing the $300 official request. Is there a back door way to do this and if so how to do it. If I can verify it is then I will get the official letter - Serial Number is S56254A which I think puts it at 2008 production or so - of course hard to tell with the "out of order" numbers.
Thanks for the help someone!

[yahoody]

Got any pictures of the gun?   I suspect it will be pretty obvious if it is a Colt engraved gun.

[St. George]

Regrettably, there's no backdoor way to verify this.

Talk to the seller, and see if he can go back to the estate to ask for any associated paperwork - now that he's sold it, he may be helpful.

As an aside - when looking at engraved Colts and those with possible Custom Shop work - before you really think about buying, get some proof up front, because factory engraving adds a different level of value to the piece, as does any of the Custom Shop work.

Scouts Out!

[Sagebrush Burns]

If it's a factory engraved Colt it will day so on the grip frame underneath the grips.  Remove them and check.