No4 mk1 , (F) Date1/49, PF 73,382

[Strangely Brown]

Why do we assume that the action bodies supplied by Faz were already serial numbered? Could they not have been supplied un-numbered for PH, Fultons etc. to apply a number from the allocated block, once they'd built rifles on them?

Possibly Harry, hence the early date.
I think where I am at odds with this one; would ROF Fazackerley have just put a date on and no serial number?

My example in post 11 clearly shows the date and number being put on by the same hand, which incidentally all of these examples have much larger numerals.
Which I think confirms a date must have been put on a receiver before leaving the ROF. I guess we might not ever know the answer to this!

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[Gil Boyd]

Even in the days of Yore, numbers were for counting, and thats the form we are all used to as human beings, especially when it comes to weapons of any type..................so it follows, numbers at the very least would have been there to be able to statistically record how many were produced IMHO.

[harry mac]

Possibly Harry, hence the early date.
I think where I am at odds with this one; would ROF Fazackerley have just put a date on and no serial number?

My example in post 11 clearly shows the date and number being put on by the same hand, which incidentally all of these examples have much larger numerals.
Which I think confirms a date must have been put on a receiver before leaving the ROF. I guess we might not ever know the answer to this!

Mick, I'd say it makes more sense to keep action bodies un-numbered until they are complete rifles. If you were to number them first, and part way through assembly a rifle was found to be defective, or a machining process was messed up and ruined it, you'd end up with a gap in the serial number run. If you only number them once they are complete rifles, a run of 50 sequential serial numbers equals fifty rifles. It makes accounting easier.