My dad recently came into possession of an Iver Johnson Champion Shotgun in 16ga. It had some surface rust which came off very nicely with the use of some 0000 steel wool. The rust didn't appear to damage the blue--I'd say it's in 90% condition or better. So maybe it's worth $150. 
ANYWAY... while taking it apart to clean it up, I noticed that all the major components of the firearm are stamped "UTIR". I'm pretty sure that I've seen that acronym somewhere before but I can not, for the life of me, recall what it means or what the significance is.
It's mostly stamped in places where it's not visible (in the barrel channel of the fore-end, inside the action, on the underside of the barrel where the fore-end covers it) , so it's not a trademark. Perhaps an inspector's mark?
The four letters are stamped separately--they don't line up to each other and that misalignment isn't consistent between the stamping in different places. Did Iver Johnson use a letter based "serial numbering system"?
Ideas?
ANYWAY... while taking it apart to clean it up, I noticed that all the major components of the firearm are stamped "UTIR". I'm pretty sure that I've seen that acronym somewhere before but I can not, for the life of me, recall what it means or what the significance is.
It's mostly stamped in places where it's not visible (in the barrel channel of the fore-end, inside the action, on the underside of the barrel where the fore-end covers it) , so it's not a trademark. Perhaps an inspector's mark?
The four letters are stamped separately--they don't line up to each other and that misalignment isn't consistent between the stamping in different places. Did Iver Johnson use a letter based "serial numbering system"?
Ideas?
Note: I would recommend any one interested in old Iver's to buy the book.