Jim, very true, presentation swords are very much sought after by collectors. A presentation model could well be misidentified as a "dress" sword, but few of those existed. Soldiers simply did not have barracks and lockers or dress uniforms available to be used only for show. We could resolve this issue if Jon would post a link to photos of his sword, then we collectors could likely identify it for him.

I own a fine Ames m1850 Foot Officers, and would have included pics, but my digital camera of 8 years just went down for the count. A replacement is on the way.