Police Luger DWM

[Don M]

Rich, that is what I was looking at but now realize a scallop is part of the design of the frame. Thanks for pointing this out. Unless this area shows evidence of later grinding, the Walther safety on this gun is probably original.

[sheepherder]

Originally Posted by Don M

Rich, that is what I was looking at but now realize a scallop is part of the design of the frame. Thanks for pointing this out. Unless this area shows evidence of later grinding, the Walther safety on this gun is probably original.

Don, for my sake (and Otto's), would you say an intact Walther Sicherung adds to the value of a police Luger??? Or as Giualfi maintains, does it detract from the value???

[Don M]

Originally Posted by postino

Don, for my sake (and Otto's), would you say an intact Walther Sicherung adds to the value of a police Luger??? Or as Giualfi maintains, does it detract from the value???

Rich, that is very difficult to say because it depends on the collector. I try to answer such questions from the point of view of the "average collector" and I suspect he doesn't much care! The fact that a Luger rig with a supposedly original intact Walther safety has languished for many months on GunBroker with a minimum bid set at $5,500 is proof that it is not a highly sought-after feature. If an intact safety is believed to be original and that it somehow escaped the deactivation order, it might add a few hundred dollars to the value because of its rarity; however, the buyer would have to have some knowledge of the history of these devices to be willing to pay this premium.

My concern with the idea of "restoring" a police Luger by replacing a deactivated safety with an intact one is that it falsifies the history of the pistol. If I suspected that had happened, I wouldn't buy the gun at all. However, I try to not be "average."