It's true that some manufacturers have used a numbering system starting at eg. 1,000, presumably to inflate the impression of output, but in the case of the Tell 3 there's evidence they started at number 1 or thereabouts and carried on sequentially.

The estimate of 50 made in total is wildly out of date and so many of these pistols have emerged since it was first mooted that Holts really should know better than to rely on it, or repeat it.

There may even be 50 surviving examples known already! I don't know, but it can't be far off. High selling prices, probably partly fuelled by assumed rarity (but also because they're lovely guns to own) have brought a lot of Tell 3s out of the woodwork recently.

There was even a pistol sold on eGun recently that claimed to have the serial number 1,000.