#'s matching is one of the most over-rated factors when judging the merits of a car IMHO. Letter's matching should be the most important criteria (I'm referring to the 5th digit in the VIN of course!)
At what time was it decided that it was of major importance that the numbers are matching, didn't the (little) weenies in the Corvette world decide at some point that this was important?
I bought my T/A in high school in the late 70's. In the early 90's someone showed me where to look for the #'s and I crawled under my car and found that my engine was in fact matching. A year or so later I was crawling under the car on a sunny day, changing the oil filter, I looked toward my transmission and saw an area illuminated by a reflection of sunlight, and there it was, the matching number for my 833!
So I had the car 15 years before I knew if it was #'s or not. After that blessed day, the paint looked shinier, it ran better, and beautiful women threw themselves at me begging me to make sweet love to them!
A few years later when I started looking seriously for a convertible, I ran a wanted ad and a guy contacted me with a great sounding convertible. However, although it was an unusual "N" code I'd never even seen the likes of before, the 383 block was NOM. Being desperate, I bought it anyway.
In 11-1/2 years it has won dozens of trophys, been complimented by hundreds, featured in our calender, etc etc. I've probably had it to over 100 shows and cruises over the years, and have yet to find anyone crawling under the car to check out the engine stamping to see if it is #'s.
However, Corvette guys turn their noses up at it, and beautiful women don't throw themselves at me when I drive it.