Hummmmm, lessee if we can figure it out here from historical ev-e-dance...
Now I would venture to state that the symbol isn't really a crest. Ya see, back in '54, we was likein Ike. Now he was a good Republican, but actually a better politician. And the alphabet agencies were still feeling the socialistic fervor of decades of democratic party rule and they all wanted to expand their empires.
The IRS was no exception and figured their key word, revenue, gave them an "in" with Ike, the great compromiser, if it could expand the country's tax base. So they looked to a newly emerging untapped resource, the importation of WWII surplus.
Since the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax Division of the IRS had experience with imported likker and Cuban smokes it was the natural choice to exploit this area. Now remember, this was before importers had to report their inventory and stamp imported firearms. So AT agents did it themselves, and this created a need for more agents, and so on. You know the drill.
Anyway, they started scrubbing and stamping the receiver rings on all imported firearms. The stamp they used was that of the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax Division, a large upper case combined A and T, commonly used at that time.
In order to give the division's new unit credit for this new source of revenue, credit that was needed to justify the division's expansion and track income by year, one small little line was added to the "T" on the stamp. The result was the stamp now indicated "Alcohol, Tobacco
and Firearms!"
The success of their efforts is illustrated in the current name of that division; the ATF.
One can also surmise by the comparatively few weapons marked in this manner that this unit actually had little impact on either the imports themselves or the amount of revenue generated. As a matter of fact, the cost of operating the unit probably greatly exceeded either the revenue generated or the benefits received by the taxpayer.
But in so stating we are merely describing the operation of most government agencies...
I hope this has been of some help to you.
