1906 American Eagle 9mm
 

I guess I will make it American Eagle day and offer up this 1906 American Eagle, 9mm, all matching, original finish, 93% blue, 50% straw, plain wood magazine bottom, nice bore, nice grips with just a couple of flat spots. Nice clean example of the rarer 9 mm version. I can't make out stamping inside rear of magazine well, see last pic. It might be "Prvt" but I am not sure. I know some think a P and/or Prvt stamp in the mag well were for private purchase by officers. Appreciate anyone who could say what other stamp this might be as I don't see the sense in it being a private purchase, since it is an AE for export?? It is probably some other stamp, I just can not make it out. Any help appreciated. Enjoy, Mark

More pics, Total 13

Mark
I like your taste in Lugers! I checked my '06 9mm American Eagle and there are no markings in the mag well. But, although it makes no sense for an American Eagle, the marks on your gun, to my eye, are indeed PRV! (Click each image to enlarge it)
Ron

Thanks Ron. I like that 1900 AE of yours, looks like it is a nice one from what I could see (ref. other thread on 1900 AE). So lets say the stamp is Prv. If we believe the theory that this indicated private purchase by officers of lugers bought up by the German Military, what would that mean? A German officer running around with an American Eagle stamped Luger? Or what was intended as a private purchase reassigned to American export? I guess this leads to the question of who stamped Prv? DWM or the Military or???? Or the Prv stamp means nothing at all about private purchase and means something else all together?? Its all theory and conjecture I guess.

Mark,
It is an enigma for sure. I have no theory/guess at this time. I have emailed a link to this post to a couple of folks I respect that have Prv marked Lugers to elicit their ideas. Stay tuned!
Ron

OK. Looking forward to it. Thanks, Mark

No reason a German officer could not buy an AE luger, is there? Perhaps an individual had a connection to the US, after all we were not at war until 1918?

Your AE is perhaps as difficult or maybe not so difficult to explain than my AE-Vopo!

Interesting AE VOPO, I just read your post about it. Mark

I agree with Ron about your very fine Lugers.

The PRV = Private-purchase is a most controversial topic. I must opine that it is speculative beyond the support of documentation, logic, and German orthography.

--Dwight

First off, nifty Luger!!! You don't see one of them every day!! The only thing I can say is that a private purchase is just that, and the owner may have very well bought an A.E. and it got marked. I am of the belief that the "Prv" or a "p" is a mark of private purchase, but cannot show hard documentation to back it up. I would have asked one of three people about this one, and two of them have posted already. I will just sit here and scratch my head while waiting for Geo to offer an opinion. The only thing I see wrong with that 06 A.E. is it is not mine!!! Thanks for the post, and Ron, thanks for the heads up, John

Thanks guys. Appreciate the input about the Prv stamp. Mark