Colt 1877 Lightning With No Patent Dates

[TripleXGuns]

I just acquired a Colt 1877 Lightning 38 and it appears to be in overall good shape. Something I noticed was that it does not seem to have the 3 line patent dates on the left side of the frame. It really doesn't look like there were any there. It does however have the rampant colt on the left side.

Does anyone know a reason why there aren't any patent dates on this one? Is this a common thing?

 

[TripleXGuns]

Here's a couple of pictures, the first one is of the gun itself and the second one is of the spot where they usually have the patent dates.

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[Andy Griffith]

I would suspect that it possibly may have been buffed off, or never put on. Is there a possibility that your gun may have been refinished long ago? The edge of the bevel just ahead of the horse logo seems very rounded- not sharp as on the ones below- just compare with the pictures below. The edge of the frame where it meets the triggerguard also looks to be buffed to a round edge rather than sharp. It's just impossible to tell from pictures. The faintness of the horse in circle logo also leads me to believe it's been polished heavily sometime in its life.



This first gun has no ejector rod:

You can see the patent dates here:

The one with a little longer barrel and ejector- I didn't get a close up of it, but you can see the patent dates: