I wish I could have been of more help
 

I was lucky in that I received my copy of WOL as a gift in 1977....I think it sold for around $30.00 retail (maybe a bit more, does anyone recall?) but the Lugers were only around $250-$300 for excellent examples. As I said, the British proofs on the example that used to have were also very faint and sometimes somewhat un-even...but were added on top of the finish.