Some details: I bought the banjo on Ebay in 2014 from a man in TN who said he bought it at the Gibson showroom in Nashville in 2006. It is nickel hardware and had the "mystery" tone ring, The owner had replaced (why I don't know) the original tail piece with a one-off Fults-...
"To second Joel, I saw an amazing W.M. Stahl on ebay a few weeks ago that sold for 700 and it didn't look to seem like it had wire string abuse. An absolute beauty! I've also seen some nice John Grey banjos show up for decent prices." ...