Norm: Actually I do have some idea of the engraving cost for the Specialty Grade, at least as of 9/19/41. In my files are copies of a departmental cost spreadsheet for the engraving department providing the in-house labor costs for all current, and most "old style" (pre-13) Smith guns. It is dated as above, and entitled "Engraving Department"; and prepared by A.E. Kraus. The labor cost, as of the date of that schedule, for engraving "all but the barrels" on a Specialty Grade Smith is noted on a page entitled "Operation 105" at $6.50. On the following page entitled "Operation 107" is noted the cost to engrave the barrels; $.50. No mention is made on any page regarding the silver precious metal bar; but with dimes actually made of 90% silver at the time, I suspect that cost was also relatively low. As to the specific gun noted above, the engraving cost involved with those barrels would have been included within the overall cost of the barrel replacement itself (and was likely no more than the 50 cents noted above). To provide some sort of perspective between the cost of labor to engrave Specilty Grade (at $7 total), and a Deluxe Grade (at $315 total); we see that the Deluxe Grade required a staggering 45 times the labor cost of a Specialty. Going in the other direction for perspective, the entire labor cost to engrave an Ideal Grade was $1.40. I don't have any stocking information; but I'm sure those Grade differences were equally substantial. But we can now understand why the Deluxe Grade retailed for the princely sum of $1200 in 1941 dollars.
By the way, this same engraving cost schedule listed engraving functions on several of its pages for an "A-4 Grade". This is the only known reference to an A-4 Grade Smith gun; so obviously, some were made. So remaining questions: where is an example, how was it marked, was it marked as to grade at all, what differentiated that model from an A-3 or Deluxe? I positively can tell you that there is no reference to any such Grade in the surviving shipping records; but that I have also talked with a gentleman who claims that one such example was once owned by a member of his family (he still has the serial number and constantly searches for this gun). But regardless the fact that this grade is not evidenced within surviving shipping records (which only contains minimal information at best), I believe the A-4 Grade to be real; if not, why would Kraus place references to such grade within his departmental cost schedules? It's these little details that keep this hobby interesting.
