I have been wrong in the past and may be now, but I think the gun is real and not an upgrade.
Russ owned such a Crescent that he would NOT think of selling.
I can easily surmise that these guns were made as presentation pieces. This is only the second high grade Crescent that I know of but Russ thought that about 20 or so were built over the years.
It may seem strange to some, but there is a decent number of collectors of "hardware store" guns, and Crescents in particular. It would not surprise me to find out that the reserve is $4/5K.
Best,
John
