Even if the rework mark is there I'd get the letter.
It would be nice to know that if it didn't start out as a nickled gun when was it renickled.
If it turns out it was renickled in 1959 or 1960 that would greatly affect the value moreso then, if say, it had been refinished in 1989.
And even if it did have the star that doesn't mean it was nickled to begin with and renickled again later. Once again the value between a renickled originally nickle specimen and a renickled originally blued specimen would be different.
The Star only indicates it's been sent back to S&W for work. It could mean repair and/or refinishing.
If there is also a Diamond that usually indicated there was a major part replaced.
Sometimes, but not always the Star or Diamond is followed by a B,N or S marking. B=blue, N=nickle and S=standard
If there is a B, N or S inside of a rectangle that means it was indeed refinished.
But the letters were not always used the same way. If, for instance, a nickled gun had been returned and refinished in blue, the letter (if any) would certainly be B. But if that same nickled gun had been refinished in nickle the letter (if any) could be either N or S.
Conversely a blued gun refinished in blue could be B or S while the same gun refinished in nickle would be N.
However, a gun such as, let's say, a Model 14 K-38 Masterpiece, factory finished in nickle, (which was a rare finish for this particular model, was for some reason sent back to be refinished and the owner wanted it blued instead the marking could be either B or S. S might have been used since the standard Model 14 finish was blue.
Confusing isn't it?
That's why a Jinks letter is so important.
Now, the stand alone N, quite often found on the rear or nickled cylinders, only indicates that the cylinder had been surface polished in preparation for nickle plating.
The degree of final surface polishing while still in the white was different for nickled and blued guns. And cylinders were placed in separate racks from frames.
