Engraving

Hi everyone, on eBay I sometimes see handcuffs that are engraved with a law enforcement agency is this a common practice. How can I tell if it authentic law enforcement engraving. I have came to own a set that is marked kroes-#128 and when I asked the seller they were his old patrol cuffs and I also have a set of leg cuffs with an agency and a name.

Hard to say if one engraving or another is authentic or not.  As a retired officer myself from a larger agency it was almost mandatory to engrave your cuffs.  It ensured your cuffs were returned back to you.  My agency when someone was arrested would use what we called a squadrol to transport the arrestee to jail.  If the cuffs were not switched out at the scene the cuffs got mixed into all the others from arrests during the shift.  Engraving them made it easier for the officers in the squadrol to get the right ones back to each Officer.  I worked the squadrol for years.  We tried to switch out cuffs at the scene so officers had the cuffs to continue their shift.  Sometimes we could and sometimes not.  A busy weekend summer night we often had 30 plus pairs to drop in mailboxes at the end of a shift.

Also some of the Officers cuffs were engraved by the Officers own hand using a department electric engraving pen.  More recent times in became more common to see professional engraving done on them.  It was usually the Officers last name and badge number.  To see an agency name on cuffs or leg irons would indicate to me that it was probably a county or state agency that ran a jail and they have a pool of restraints everyone used.

Here are my thoughts on the engraving subject. There are a lot of people out there who fake engrave cuffs to try to increase their value. Personally, engraving doesnt add much to the value of a cuff to me. Now, something that is factory stamped with an agencies name or something like that, does add value to me. If the stamping is under the nickel plating, then it came from the factory that way. If the stamping/engraving goes through the plating, then it was done outside of the factory. Look at how clean the engraving/stamping is and does do the marks have age to them to match the rest of the cuff? Some guys will just engrave an old cuff and throw it on the market. The engraving is markedly cleaner than the rest of the patina on the cuff, its probably a fake. Watch out for sensational engravings. In stead of Saying Leavenworth Cell Block D, It may say Leavenworth Death Row. To me, that screams someone trying to sell to the oddities market. An institution will normally mark their cuffs (if they mark them) with facility designation numbers or letters, instead of Death Row or Mental Ward, etc. Like the cuffs you see marked Area 51. Area 51, isnt called Area 51 in the military. The facility is called, Groom Lake, Detachment 3 or Homey Airport. Someone may mark the cuff Area 51 to create a fantasy piece and try to trick buyers into thinking its a legitimate base used handcuff.

Another thing to take into consideration is does the cuff match the era that facility was being used? A S&W Model 104 will not say Alcatraz on it. The facility was closed before the cuff was on the market. Also, does the engraved cuff meet up to the N.I.J. standards that police are allowed to use these days? A cuff stamped as being made in Taiwan and has an engraving that states it was used in Joliet State Prison, is not accurate. Use your best judgement when looking at engravings. If it doesnt look/feel right, it probably isnt. A member of this board, Mark Lyons, used to have an article on Ebay about how to spot modern fakes. One thing he pointed out was if a cuff has a stamped brass plate on it, that would almost always be a fake. Plantations, prisons, etc, did not pay the extra money to have fancy brass plates made to advertise for the facility. So the brass plates are also a good indicator of a fake.

Lastly, look out for people on sites like Ebay that sell all of their merchandise as engraved and being sold "as found." There is a guy on there right now called Pitbull9899 or something similar to that. He buys cuffs on cheap auctions or in lots and engraves them then tries to sell them as legitimate police used cuffs. He recently bought a lot deal with several Harvard Lock Co. Handcuffs and Leg Irons. Low and behold, he now is selling Harvard Lock Cuffs with San Quentin Death Row engraved into them. This guy is an idiot. He also sells through a couple of other accounts that are based near him in California. One, im pretty sure, is his wife's account. If you are skeptical of a piece, look through the seller's sales history. See if he has sold any other engraved items recently.
-Richard Knip-

"A member of this board, Mark Lyons, used to have an article on Ebay about how to spot modern fakes."

Richard, thank you for mentioning my article.
In the early days of eBay, one could see who was bidding on each item, but the names were not encrypted as they are now.
Contacting the bidders was easy and you could warn them of their impending doom when seeking a cuff used by Black Bart or Bat Masterson.

eBay started hiding the bidders names and when a bidder lost out on a pair of "authentic" cuffs claimed to be used by Elliot Ness, when other sellers would write to the 2nd bidder and offer to sell him another Ness cuff.  As a result, eBay would not get their commission and the buyer would not get what they wanted in many cases.  Thus, the eBay encrypted user name program was implemented.
About this time, (2012 or so) eBay Collector Guides were made available for writers to prepare and publish their articles on almost every topic of collecting.  1st Edition books, Tiffany lamps, baseball cards....etc.

So many people were getting burned by purchasing Andersonville Prison handcuffs which were often found up in the hay lofts in barns in the deep south and Black Beard the Pirate's cuffs, so I wrote the article you mentioned.  MANY people wrote to me and it was my honor to aid them in getting a nice item but it was predominately people just about to spend their hard earned cash with these  rip-off artists. In a recent video from Arioch, he talks about a fantasy old-west looking cuff.  I remember the 1st one shown on eBay sold for about $300.  There was no way to warn the bidders about buying this cuff that now sells for $30.
I assume that eBay's pockets were getting empty with less bidding taking place as a result of better educated bidders so they ended their collector's article program.

Joe and his Handcuffs.org was kind enough to allow me to continue my article and it now appears on the home page of this wonderful site. Table of contents.
Look at the list of related articles.  It is among some other nice articles such as collector interviews and Houdini related topics.


http://handcuffs.org/lyons/

According to my opinion, engravings (if not factory made) just add to the history, not the value. Many engravings are also badly made and destroy the look.

However, there are exceptions to dull engravings. I have a pristine set of the Bean Detective, which I owened for many years. One day, when looking at them very carefully I  suddenly discovered two very small engravings at the hinges, one on each side. One side read "GARDNER", the other "A809971". Probably the officers name and badge numer.  This officer certainly didn't want to destroy the nice look to his new handcuffs and he wanted to make the engravings as small as possible but still be able to identify HIS set. These engravings doesn't add anything to the value but certainly to the history and the feeling to them. Don't you think?

Lars

That's a nice pair of Bean cuffs Lars. I don't think the number is a badge number, it's too large. The largest police department in the U.S. is the New York City PD and at their highest they had about 40,000 officers. NYPD did have badge numbers on their billy clubs and nightsticks (actually small brass plates with the numbers stamped on them), but there is no department in this country with a number as high as the number you have.

Matt

Thank you Matt for the explanation about badge numbers. The former owners name, Gardner, is one thing but what kind of identification do you think this long number is?

Lars

Many cities in California use a numbering system other than a badger number.
The badges are numbered in most cases but the number can change when the officer goes up (or down) in rank.
In the San Diego Sheriff's Department, Lieutenants and above did not even have numbers on their badges.
We use a system called ARJIS   https://www.arjis.org/SitePages/WhatIsARJIS.aspx
The ARJIS number is what counts and not the badge number.  We find it funny when someone says "Let me have your badge number", as it does not really mean anything.  The ARJIS is used for all or most agencies in San Diego.
Other counties or areas use similar but different systems.

In Las Vegas, ALL city employees are given a P-number or Personnel number.  The chief of police might have 12345 and the sewer inspector might have 12346.

Lars, your numbering on the Bean looks like a California Driver's License number.  We use 7 characters with a letter at the beginning. 

Thanks Mark, that's interesting. Is that numbering as old as it match cuffs that would have been used so long time ago as the Bean Detective?
As we often say, if these cuffs could speak. I guess it would be impossible to track the cuffs down with help of the name and the number.

I only have one set of cuffs that can be connected to the first owner/user. It's a pair of Carberry with case that once belong to sheriff Fred Shelmadine (1881-1961) of Alliance, Box Butte County, Nebraska. I once bought these cuffs from his family and got the fully background. I just love history!

Lars

Lars, you asked a good question.
In searching for the history of driver licenses, I found some interesting ones online.
The great majority are 7 characters but OJ's is 8.  I am not sure if someone altered the picture of his to provide security or if the state actually had 8.
I was taught that there was only 7.
Boris Karloff has only 6 but someone may have whited out the first digit for the same security issue.  His license as shown, is from 1939,   If a digit is blocked out, the numbers would certainly be in the Bean era.  It could also be that a collector in the 70's or 80's engraved all the pieces in his collection with his drivers license, just like I just did to my new Loreys in case they get stolen.
It would be hard to believe that a collector would mark any cuff in his collection, but Houdini did it!

Bing Crosby's license is from 1963 and the state was using the 7 character system at least that early on.
I included a picture of me and a lock that I am working on from his house not too far from here, since I am on that topic of Crosby.

I will look into this more as I like all aspects of history too.

The Gill cuff might be an exception to the engraved cuff not having added value to it.
These cuffs generally had the officer's name on them.  I assume they left the factory with the name upon them but they are crude in appearance and does not look like factory workmanship.
I find it hard to believe that police departments around the country had the same idea  to stamp them if they actually came from the factory unstamped.
Is it possible that 1 police department ordered the majority of these from Gill and stamped them themselves?
Anything is possible!
I think I have only seen 2 or 3 without the name on it.
If we only knew which department these guys worked for, these cuffs would be enhanced with their history.

Could be an over all employee number for everyone that works for the employer.  Such as a state agency or federal one could create a high number like that.