Need help to date an early Luger

[mrerick]

Hi Lee and welcome to the forum. Where are you located?

You have a commercial contract Luger (proofed and marked for commercial sale rather than military contract sale) with serial numbers stamped in the commercial fashion made in the 1906 pattern with grip safety.

With the lighting and soft focus of your first pictures, it's hard to judge if it's refinished. Is the small toggle axle retention pin (visible on the right in your second picture) in the white or blued?

Are slightly lightened "halos" visible around the stamped serial number on the bottom of the barrel?

Could we see the letters that have been cut into the right grip? Is this meaningful to you (someone's initials? a company name?)?

My first impression is that this pistol may have been professionally restored.

The frame profile is that of a pistol made after 1908 (Ron Wood's type "V" from Still's "Central Powers Pistols" appendix "B"). Likely made before 1914 when contract sales were halted. Post WW-I sales started up again at s/n 73,500 (Kenyon) so it was probably made in the early 1910s.