The Last of the "Colt" Colt 1860 Armies
Easy - Technically, the last "Colt" production of the 1860, as recognized by a gun able to "letter out" as with a Colt factory letter as provenance, took place in 1982. The final production run of approx. 1,200 of these guns were stainless steel, which was how Colt concluded the production run of the "Authentic Colt Blackpowdwer Series" of guns, begun in 1971 with the 1851 Navy. All the Armies (save the commemoratives) were produced in black boxes, gold labels, w/foam inserts.
A number of years later, after some financial problems, Colt sold the rights to the name,(remember Colt knives?) and the company called Colt Blackpowder Arms was born. It was overseen at the time by the same man who had guided the Colt "2nd Generation" of percussion revolvers, Lou Imperato. This company had some threadbare connections to the old Colt, but just a few. They included a photocopy of the old 2nd Gen. Colt manual with the guns they made, which included the page on warranty returns, which directed folks contact Colt Firearms for their warranty assistance.
When the calls started to come in, Colt was forced to go public with the fact that these new "Signature Series" revolvers were "Colts in name only" as their press release to Guns & Ammo magazine stated.
If the gun you saw had a "Sam Colt signature" stamped on the backstrap, a grey box with the black "Colt" logo on it, or has been spoiled in any way - shot, cyl. turned or ringed - that's probably a bit too much money for it - even w/o any 'spoilage' - they're nice guns, but just not quite as good, IMHO as the 2nd Gen. "Authentics" - Griswold