Unit Markings on an Unfortunate "Hybrid"
 

Greetings to all. I believe this is my first post, although I may have "chimed in" on one or two others.
The subject of this post is one of those unfortunate Lugers that comes by us, from time to time, what I call a "hybrid mismatch". This one is a shooter I picked up at a gun show, several years ago, from a guy who was walking around with it sticking out of his back pocket. I would not ordinarily bother this astute forum with such a mundane example of our favorite handgun, but please read on.
The pistol has a very nice G-date upper receiver unit, and what I believe to be a WWI, unit-marked lower frame. The lower is not quite as nice as the upper, but is interesting to me for its unit marking: S.E.I.44., stamped into the right side of the front grip. One can see, very faintly, that a previous unit marking was down the center of the frone grip frame. In addition to having been apparently polished out, at one point, it also had "X" marks, scratched over the previous markings. Here is an image of the grip frame:

Attachment 79936

I know there are forum member who could identify this unit in their sleep, but I've not been able to do so, on my own. Someone once told me it was probably an ambulance unit. But please help me out here, and I promise to stick to more worthy subjects, in future.

Great forum. Thanks for your time.

litteralis

the grip marking is from the
Schupo of Erfurt, Area/district I, weapon 44.

The "xed" out markings were likely an earlier police marking.

Thanks, Don. That makes perfect sense to me (once I've been told what it means).

frankenlugerguy

You probably should get a copy of our FAQ document. Just follow the FAQ links. Good reference materials there.

As to the frame, what is the sn including suffix letter? What do the "X"ed out markings look like?
Marc

Thanks for the reply, Mark. Sorry to be late in getting back to you.
The serial no. is 3181N. The markings in the center of the grip strap are so faint that I can't really make them out. I'll try to get a good photo of them, and put it up; the "X" marks are visible, in the proper light. They're pretty faint, but I'll do my best with it.

Attachment 79976

Let's try this one.
frankenlugerguy

By the way, Marc, I have now downloaded, and am going through, the FAQ document. Thanks for the tip. And, sorry I misspelled your name, above. Force of habit; I have a good friend named, "Mark". Won't happen again, however.

frankenlugerguy

I enjoy the study of unit marks. Thank you for posting.

The Xed out unit mark could be from the Imperial Army, as well as another police division. Many surplus military Lugers after the Big War were reassigned to police units throughout Germany.

I doubt that the upper G Date was placed on this frame by a police armor, more likely a post war change. Lugers issued to the police are found, except in very rare circumstances, to be be unaltered. Police policy was very obsessive about keeping their weapons together, that is why during the Weimar and early TR periods they oftened matched the pistol to its holster by stamping the serial number into the leather and onto the loading tool.

Thanks, GC. That's great information, for a novice like me. The thing I'm learning, and really like, about this forum, is that, if one gets involved, the learning curve expands, exponentially. I lurked here for years, and now know what I've been missing.

That is a really 'off-center' unit marking - and although I would not say rare, it is unusual (like I have never seen that marking), but that does not usually mean any change in value on a police luger

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