Ted;
The date stamps on mine said 1967, though as I recall I ordered it just a bit prior to the 1968 GCA putting mail order out of business. I had ordered it From Herter's Inc. Had reqd Francis Sell's articles & had been looking at these guns & then a new catalog came in from Herter's with it priced @ $129.95 or $50.00 off the $179.95 list so ordered one. The next gun I bought was my First Lefever, a 30" 12ga FE damascus for which I had to sign the 4477 form. In 1970 I had it shipped to Italy for a new set of 26" steel barrels, forget exactly what chokes I asked for but they ended up @ .012" & .024". Once I got it back it became my #1 go to gun for near everything I hunted. I was into reloading so just adjusted the loads. As I recall at that point in time I gave $1230.00 for the FE & than around $150.00 for the new barrels. I did keep the original damascus barrels intact though. I could have saved a few dollars by letting them strip them for parts, but wasn't enough to justify losing the originals in my opinion, have never regretted saving them. At the time I was having doubts but was not fully convinced the damascus ones were safe to use. Had I known then what I now know I would not have had the new barrels made.
