Double Date Question
 

Hey guys,

I understand when a Luger has the 1920 over the Imperial date like:
1920
1917

with the Reichswehr property mark; now

What about the chamber configuration of "1918/20" ???????

Is that a 1918 Luger that was left in a bin after 11/11/1918, then was thrown together in 1920????

I can't answer your question, but I would like to see a pic... :)

double dates refer to manufacture dates and property mark period. I believe

Recently, someone asked about a Luger with only a 1920 on the chamber. As I recall, it was diagnosed as a commercial that had been put into gov't service, and thus property-stamped 1920 on a formerly,characteristically blank chamber. The pics showed the digits had been stamped slightly off-center, and not strictly lined up. This irregular rendering of the 1920 shows it to be a property stamp, which I believe was usually applied by hand--far removed from the process of roll stamping the receiver at the factory with a die. So, I figure that property stamped receivers could have just about any other original date along with the misaligned 1920, up until when the property stamp was discontinued (when, I forget; '22 or '23?).

A date like 1918/20 means the receiver was date stamped in 1918 but the pistol was not completed until 1920. This is totally different from the 1920 government property stamp which could have been applied by either the Reichswehr or the police.

Don has the correct info. I have seen a few examples marked 1917/18 but this is the first 1918/20 I have heard of.

Thanks Don,
But how does one tell the difference? I have a 1917/1920 DWM military that was converted from an artie. How does one identify a pistol with receiver double-stamped to indicate a 1920 date of completion v. one that was property stamped with the 1920?
D.P.

David,
A property stamp consists of all 4-digits "1920". In the example given, the stamping is "1918/20", i.e. the date of initial parts manufacture, "1918", is followed by a slash (/) and then the digits "20", the date of completion. The "20" is usually a smaller font than the initial parts date. Your example, 1917/1920, indicates a 1917 date of manufacture with the subsequent 1920 government property stamp applied. To further confuse things, there are Lugers actually manufactured in 1920 that have a "1920" chamber date (there are even some of these that were subsequently property marked, i.e. 1920/1920!) :).

Thanks for the information, I figured it was completed in 1920, having only the last two digits "/20"

Below is a link to the auction, which I would have posted with my query, but I could not remember where it was (spent a few hours last night looking for my white whale (WW1 date WITH 1920 WITH East German proofs), covered a lot of territory and had to retrace my web surfing.

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/Vie...Item=319692534

sorry prussiaus sometimes I forget how little I know about lugers

No worries, i only know just enough to be dangerous;)

OK, that clears that up for me. Without pics, did not realize the "1917/20" was a literal transcription of the stamping, complete with slash, but understood it as the much more commonly rendered two separate dates, one over the other.
If there is only a lone "1920" stamp, would one way to tell a 1920 mf'd receiver from a 1920 property stamped receiver be the regular centering and alignment of the factory rolls stamped digits v. the dates with digits that LOOK hand stamped?

That's one way. You can also look at the serial number and other characteristics of the gun to determine when it was manufactured. For example, true 1920-dated DWMs will have E/ArA4 or E/WaA4 acceptances.

Note that there are some police Lugers that were manufactured as late as 1924 that have a 1920 property stamp.

good to know thanks