Police Positive 38 Special

Question
I have this hand gun ,It was my Father-in-law after his death in 1985.I would like to known how old is it and the history this hand gun.
It has on side of the barrel Police positive 38 special, The hand grips are black in color and seems to be plastic.It has horse stamped in the frame,The top of the barrel has pat'd Aug.5.1884 June.5.1900 July.4.1905.Along with the mfg name and address.I Can you help me.Thanks Ken

Answer
Ken,

The link you clicked on said, "I CANNOT TELL YOU THE HISTORY OF YOUR GUNS." However, I like the Colt double action revolvers, and happen to know a little bit about them, but I am by no means an expert in them.

The dates on top of the barrel are dates of various patents Colt won for their revolvers, and are not specific to the Police Positive.

If my sources are correct, Colt came out with the Police Positive revolver in 1908 chambered for the ".38 Colt Special," which was simply the .38 (S&W) Special cartridge with a different headstamp.
The Police Positive was very popular in its hay-day, and was in production until the 1980s.

During WWII Colt made many of these guns with a less-than-impressive finish and plastic grips. After the war Colt again began producing guns with their famous deep blue finish but continued to fit them with plastic grips until the 1950s when they resumed using checkered wood with the Colt medallions.

The Colt revolvers were prettier and 揹aintier?than the S&Ws, but the S&Ws were stronger, more robust revolvers, using coil instead of leaf springs, which not only were less prone to breakage, but made for a more consistent trigger pull. After WWII S&W began to overtake Colt as the world's premier revolver maker. By the 1960s S&W revolvers were outselling the Colts.

I am old enough to have sadly witnessed economic, labor, and market forces push Colt into a period of decline. In the 1980s the Glock pistol came out and was such a hit with police departments that revolvers began to go the way of the dinosaur. You would be hard-pressed today to find a police agency using revolvers of any kind. Little by little Colt抯 line of  service-style revolvers were dropped.

The Police Positive (nor indeed any of the Colt double action revolver, e.g. Detective Special, Python, Anaconda) is no longer produced. I have no idea what the monetary value of that gun is, but if it were mine I would never get rid of it, simply because they aren't making any more.