Imperial Navy mark on 1920 Commercial?
 

I was wondering if someone could help me figure out what is going on with this gun.

I bought it from someone that did not know what year, etc.

Best I can tell it is a 1920 commercial - the tell for me is that this appears to be the only "no date" DWM commercial with 9mm and a 3 7/8" barrel.

The proof marks are strange on this gun because it appears to have an Imperial Navy Acceptance Mark above the Nitro "N" where the commercial nitro proof (with the tall crown) would be expected.

There are no other marks on the gun.

Other than that the gun looks to have been "restored" at some point - based on the tool marks and apparant re-blueing.

There was no magazine with the gun, all numbers match (took it completely apart) except the trigger side plate.

Any information on the proof marks (or anything else) would be appreciated.

Looks OK to me. It is a "Alphabet commercial" Made in the last half of 1924. It does appear to be refinished, except for the side plate, but I could be wrong. You are missing the takedown lever spring. Proper mag would be a wood based, but the metal based were coming in about then.


FN

Thanks for the info!
 

Thanks for the info about alphabet lugers. Based on your reply, I found a pretty cool post on this site that documents all the luger alphabet suffixes with the date the suffix was used.

Here is the link to my cursive n.

http://www.lugerforum.com/Suffixes/S...s/page0004.htm