Rare luger?
 

Hello, I have a friend who has a Luger that was given to him by his father. This Luger was taken from Franz Von Papen's son. His father captured him and confiscated his Luger and his dagger. I have the newspaper article that chronicles the whole story. It was in the Pittsburgh Sun Telegraph front page Sunday April 15th 1945. I wanted to get a good appraisal of the value for him. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Simpson's Ltd. and Legacy Collectables both do appraisals and could probably help you out. dju

can you scan the story into the thread?
 

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Good advice I've heard many times is:

"Buy the gun, not the story"...

For a firearm to increase value because of some association with a famous individual, it has to be documented in some way that is irrefutable.

A newspaper article naming an individual that a firearm is acquired from may or may not establish that. The article naming the individual that received the firearm and a verifiable "Bring Back Paper" naming the individual with appropriate date may help you do better.

If you don't have this paperwork, look around and try and locate it.

Best wishes. We'd enjoy seeing the Luger as well.

Marc

PICTURES! Please..

Common sense would say that if the serial number of that Luger isn't recorded in the article or in bringback papers, the story that goes with it might be worth two or three dollars over any other equivalent Luger

In lieu of all the above, if the father still lives, a signed, notarized affidavit stating all the circumstances and facts of the capture, including the gun's serial number, would help, along with the newspaper article.

Otherwise, as noted, it is just a story.

a note about notarized documents. the notary only confirms that the person signing the document is the person they claim to be by showing the notary some current id such as a drivers license.

and it confirms the date that the document was signed by both people. the transaction is also recorded in the notary's book.

however, having it notarized does not certify the truth of what is written on the document. so it would still be a story, unproven.