Very Rare Colt Detective Special - OSS/CIC Issued?

Description

3/20/26 - This is a very rare and highly desirable Colt Detective Special revolver that was likely issued to the Office of Strategic Services or Counter Intelligence Corps in 1943.  The accompanying Colt archives letter states it was shipped to Rosslyn, VA but with a specific notation for Fort Myer.  Other examples we've encountered with the same shipping information have been labeled as going to the CIC, while others state that the 1943 and earlier letters will say Rosslyn but not specify the Office of Strategic Services. The Colt Factory Letter states it was shipped to an Ordnance Officer in Rosslyn, VA on January 28, 1943 in a 257 gun shipment. The gun is matching and has retained roughly 90% of its original finish. There is high edge wear on the cylinder, muzzle wear, and some very minor thinning on the back strap. Fitted with slightly worn period-correct wood grips. Excellent bore with strong rifling. 

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The Office of Strategic Services was an intelligence agency of the United States during World War II. The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines for all branches of the United States Armed Forces. The OSS was dissolved a month after the end of the war. Intelligence tasks were shortly later resumed and carried over by its successors, the Department of State's Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), and the Central Intelligence Group (CIG), the intermediary precursor to the independent Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Firearms associated with the O.S.S. have become especially popular in the last five years.