vintage conn 22B silver trumpet w/ New York bach mpc

Description

Up for auction is a vintage conn 22B silver trumpet with a New York bach mpc.  Serial # 229,8xx   I believe dates to 1926.  I can't be sure, but this horn may have been made for an artist.  Years ago I was told that the Star under the serial number meant it was made for a specific artist.  It doesn't appear to have ever had a pinky hook on the leadpipe.  Was this a thing?  Any comments ?  This old horn has been played.  Repairs in all normal places for these horns.  Some solder work but not done out of place.  Doesn't look to have ever had a bell crush repaired.  Can't be sure if this is the original case or not.  Came with a NY Bach mouthpiece in it but I can't recall if it were the Mt. Vernon era or earlier.  I chem cleaned it and it works great.  I only had corks to put up under the finger buttons to align the valves and they're a little noisy, but if you have access to felts now you'd know what thickness to use.  Kick slide works great.  Valves are fast.  Hardly any amount of plating loss.  There is plating loss throughout,.. including almost all of the tuning slide.  Gold washed bell matches it up pretty well though... haha.  No reserve. NO international shipping.  Posted shipping cost is for Conus only.  All other US states and territories must pay the priority upcharge.  Thanks for looking and good luck.
Some instruments, mostly from the 1920's, have either a star ("*") or the letter "B" stamped near the serial number. Current thinking is that these marks indicate a non-standard alloy, probably only of the bell. The suspicion is that a star indicates a gold brass bell (higher copper content), while a "B" indicates a "French brass" bell. None of this is confirmed at the moment (July 2009). Serial numbers with a "V" engraved after the serial number are factory seconds.   So maybe the Star isn't a "made for an artist" horn afterall.