Question on inverted serial letter suffix on Luger
 

A dealer friend has an interesting u block 41/42 Luger with two matching mags. However the letter suffix on the frame is inverted. I'd appreciate any comments on the pistol and how much if any harm this does to value?

David
Snipershot1944@yahoo.com

Mag photos

Last pics

show the suffix on the luger straight on - on the mags, those are 'U' not N's IMHO

I have never seen inverted letters, and I'd say its an 'n' on the luger and 'u' on the mags...

Ed. I had glare issues with the pics and only a cell phone for pics. So I'm trying to figure out if the factory had a bad day or this was humped?

Looks like the bottoms of the mags were sanded and re-numbered.

I too think the pistol is "n" and the mags "u":confused:

I believe that was a gun I once owned...untouched,as brought back by a vet....the suffix is an "n" and for whatever reason the "n" was stamped upside down on the mags......was perplexed as to why at the time...concluded the mags were stamped like that from day one....

I have to side with Don on this issue... the bottoms of these mags have definitely been sanded. The difference in aluminum oxidation is very apparent. The numbers were restamped IMHO, and the letter suffix (definitely a "U") is original.

The letter on the pistol is an "N"

Question, is there a suffix on the barrel?

Just my $0.02

I'll agree that the mag bottoms look "shaved" from one angle, but looking at them from the sides I'm not seeing it. And to remove enough material to completely remove previous numbers would have to go fairly deep and would show on the side profile. No?
dju

Two cents back at you John...the markings on the magazines are upside down "n". Neither open leg of a "u" have a "curl" at the end and there are two starting and ending strokes of a "u", both at the rounded bottom. Ed's tutorial (post #4) clearly shows this.

The shape of the ground surface is that which you generally see only on factory ground magazine bottoms. If renumbered, the work was very well done, but I fear that things are not right.

Take a close look at the "n" and "u" stamps documented here:

http://lugerforum.com/lugermarkings/suffix.html

and you'll see that the tails of the "n" and "u" are different. The magazines have upside down "n" characters, not "u" characters.

And yes, the other explanation is that the worker that day stamped the magazines with an upside down letter suffix accidentally. Is this a one off that escaped inspection and got approval? Are other examples known?

If someone was boosting them, my bet is that they would not have stamped the letters upside down. Of course, anything is possible.

or they did't notice the subtle differences.

They are definitely upside down "n". Could be workman's error. Not sure what kind of jig they used as they stamped suffixes.

But, I would really like to see the other side of the magazines.

They should have the Haenel 122 code and the WaA Eagle 37 proofs and no P.08.

And... subject to measuring the diameters of the bases, I am NOT prepared to write off these mags as fake or boosted.

As always, JMVHO

John

I purchased the Pistol from an estate,probably 10 years ago......from the family of the Veteran who brought it back......he was a high ranking Canadian Army officer who also brought back a 2 digit Ser # MP38,a G41 Rifle amongst other prime examples of German WW2 Weapons....this pistol was brought back this way......factory mistake?....don't know for sure...there was no reason for the gun to have been played with

I stand corrected on the identification of the "N" as a "U" I based my opinion on my examination of the photos and didn't open Ed's reference article... My bad.

Ron is correct, they are upside down "N" characters...

...on the matter of the re-stamping of the serial number. I am still of the opinion that the mags were re-stamped... the font is not the same as the pistol... the #3 has a flat top on the mags and the rounded top #3 is used on the pistol frame. While this may be possible, I am still not of the opinion that mixing fonts was likely during this time (1941-42) manufacturing process.

John,
Frame font and magazine fonts were different in 1941. Especially the "3"s". I did a study on this on Still's Forum.
http://luger.gunboards.com/showthrea...ification-1941

Tom

I just looked at the study Tom referred to, and the "3" digits on those magazines and the ones here look the same to me. so do the 6 and 9 digits. i must be missing something. The dies normally used on the frame of the gun were different than those used on the magazine.

I'm now leaning more to factory worker upside down stamping error.

thank you, its a sticky now

I'm really appreciative of all of this dialogue. I've not purchased the pistol at this point. Thanks.

Any chance the mags were sanded and re-stamped back during the war?