1940 Ford truck ID please

[Tony Smith]

Originally Posted by Tony Smith

I read the serial number on the rebuild tag to be AV2R6782. Does the other number, N or(W or V)59xx7xP, appear to be poorly hand stamped, or factory? A photo would be good, I suspect it will be crudely hand stamped, and will tell you why.

This number has been issued, and applied, by the NSW Police Force to supercede the factory rebuild number. At one time, a vehicle with this engine number No. AV2R6782 has been stolen and the engine number "red-flagged". Subsequent to that, the vehicle has been recovered and either returned to the owner or sold through an insurance auction. To legitimise the stolen engine, the original number is voided and a new one issued and applied with hand stamps by NSW Police. The new number will be shown on the registration records and any receipts for sale.

This practice hasn't been used for many years (in fact, the "59" in the number indicates it was issued by Police in 1959) as nowadays all records are digital and centralised and it is much simpler to correct and update to avoid any inconvenience to a legitimate owner, but back in the day of paper record keeping, it would be common for some police not to receive the latest status updates on stolen and recovered vehicles.