Lowest 1916 DWM sn reported?
 

I spent an hour doing pics and lost it so here is the short versin. I am a 1911 guy and short on Luger knowledge. I have three and decided to do some research on them. So here goes, please help. 1916 Dwm, SN 253. Most current edition of "Blue book of gun values" states that the lowest reported serial number is "287", (page 1186) Out of ignorance I am asking: Do I have the same pistol with a lower SN? If so, should I report it and if so, to whom? Does this affect the value and how much? It is in about 80 percent and every little part has a "53" stamped on it and "1916" is on top in front of the receiver. The attached pic is on the right side. I cannot find any unit markings. There are some markings inside the frame like this is a clock face : a "7" at 10, a 0" at 2, a "6" 5, and a "6" at 7 with an "N" in the center of the dial.
Thanks for any help.

Im still kinda new to lugers, but I'm sure someone will ask about the letter on front of the trigger guard that goes with the SN. They are considred alphabet lugers.

I downloaded a spreadsheet off this forum that had a list of lugers and SN's which I will attach. There may be an updated one somewhere on this forum. Cant remember where I got it. But I did see a SN 48 M luger. Dont know years though. Ill let you browse through it.

Attachment 31741

Attachment 31742

The "alphabet" moniker is only applied to Commercial pistols with letter sufixes. All standard miltary productions had the letter suffix so no letter is used to describe them.

Not sure what is meant above....

But all military had NS (no suffix) or had a suffix.

So, sometimes it seems that you have a really low number, lets say 1916 sn 34 - wow, sounds great, however, there were about 150 thousand made in previous years. So, a low sn is nice, but many times not true.

The best answer is not looking for spreadsheets (not sure where any are located like that on any good forum), but buy books.

I hear folks saying they don't want to spend the money etc, and well, buy books. There are reasons that authors have spent hundreds of hours, thousands of hrs of research and made spreadsheets in them.

Glenn,

What is the full description of your Luger? It appears to have a j serial number suffix. The army specifically avoided using the letter j as a suffix, and there are less then a handful known.

--Dwight

Dwight:
Please elaborate on the phantom "J" series.
dju

Apparently DWM did not use the j suffix. However Erfurt did in 1917. They can be found. I sold one to a forum member last year. Bill