Ha ha. . . . . ah yes, the mystery of the serial numbered guns with a SUFFIX added to the number. Well, there is a little story that goes with this one, one of which you will all get a little chuckle about, I'm sure.
Once upon a time, there was an apprentice who worked under Mr. E.C. Rohrbaugh at a local firearms factory. He quickly learned the craft of Gunsmithing and was very well liked around the facility. Well, one day, when he was engraving serial numbers on new frames, he was so happy that he was getting them all done. . . . . except one thing. It seems he came to show Mr. E.C. Rohrbaugh that he had “a little problem”. The machine that does the engraving had to be manually reset for the next batch of 48 frames to be done. Well, it so happened he forgot to do that part of the program, thereby engraving the next 48 frames with the same serial numbers as the previous 48 frames! Whoops! Not all lost, as long as the serial numbers are logged with the BATF and the New York State Police, they are 100% fine and legal. So, Mr. Rohrbaugh set up the engraver to add the capital “A” after the serial numbers already engraved. The frames were reset on the machine in the same fixtures they were in for the original engraving, pushed the “START” button and 48 more frames were engraved so as not to have to destroy them and loose that investment of bare frames, along with the time it took to prepare them, and so there is the reason those R9 pistols with not only a prefix, but with a suffix as well, exist. Yes, yet another little quirk to the Rohrbaugh R9 Pistols. There are only 48 of those R9s out there. Yes, they are rare and “special” alright, but certainly nothing at all wrong with them other than the odd serialization. I can tell you this though: Our Mr. Apprentice did pay for our lunch that day as a good gesture. We liked that. Lol.
Regards,
Eric R.
