Thanks for everyones input. I'm convinced it's a restoration and bought it as such. As has been pointed out there are several faults with the gun that point to a previous restoration.
I will say that whoever did the case colors and the rust blue was a master. The blue is so even and a beautiful dark blue/black. The case colors are so close to original LC colors, even how they blend from the sideplates to the receiver.
Doug, the orange between the leather and the black spacer is rubber,not marker covered plastic,suspect the pad under the leather is possibly a Silvers or reproduction Silvers.
One interesting detail I forgot to mention that I noted before purchase is the forend iron has no serial #, possibly a replacement iron? Or did the Marlin era 20 gauges not have a serial # on the iron? Numbers on my 12 gauges are struck pretty deep,you would notice if they were ground away.
