New police Luger
 

So, I saw this at my local gun shop for $500 and I snapped her up at such a good deal. The pistol has no date, DWM toggle, and is all matching. Serial number 7799 and M on the frame. Buffed and refinished with mismatched magazine and aftermarket grips.

The grip says SP. Bn. 251. (which is crossed out) and then 1920. is stamped in.

Interesting location for the property stamp.
Nice find.
dju

Nice price for an attractive, interesting shooter! Looks like a nice magazine too.

To be fair, there was some sheen of surface rust on some of the internals but a good strip down and cleaning as well as oiling took care of that. Seems like the last owner was just a bit neglectful? Pretty though definitely a shooter.

I read the markings as Schutzpolizei Bremen (formerly gun number) 251. No sign of any Russian capture marks (which could have been buffed out) and no sign of importer marks.

That's not a property stamp. It's a reassigned inventory number. See Table 17-2 of HWIS for adjacent inventory numbers of the Bremen Schupo.

Michael, is there any evidence that 7,65 stamped on the chamber was removed? Many of these pistols were used by the Bremen Schupo for a period of time in their original caliber before being converted to 9 mm.

Your Bremen pistol is of the "SP." marked variety. Others are marked "S.P."

I don't believe the reason for this is known.

Does your pistol bear the number "251" on the rear of the frame?

Here are two other examples:
http://forum.lugerforum.com/showthread.php?t=31211

Jack

Jack - No, there's nothing on the rear of the frame. I can't tell if it's because of the buffing for refinishing (some areas are heavily buffed like parts of the toggle).

Don - I'm not seeing any sign of that but I could also just not be looking closely enough, either.

Jack, you are correct although I suspect that S.P. may have been initiated by the Sicherheitspolizei and it was later changed to SP. after they were merged to form the Schutzpolizei. Just a guess, however.

Michael, although most of the Bremen Alphabet Commercials are reported as having a canceled 7,65 on the chamber, not all are so reported. The standard approach appears to have been to x-out this number when the gun was reworked, so perhaps yours never had it.