Jim,
Well, i have no idea of the production dates, but they were Charter 2000, all the new style .38spl with the bobbed hammer and 'boot grip' style rubber grips. All were silver, so i guess that they were part stainless steel and part alloy. The people that were selling them at the show had nothing on the tags for them but the price so i really cannot tell you much more than what i have. The prices were not bad, $200 if i remember correctly.
I really hope that the first ones i looked at were just bad examples. I have had a couple of old Charters and always found them to be pretty solid little guns.
There is a pawn shop near here that just got several of the .38s and what looked like a .44spl in their case. I will try to get by there this weekend and give them a good once over so i can tell you a bit more about them in general.