Joe, very nice 1918s. I have attached a few pictures of my 1918 for comparison. My observation is that on the early 1918s the ONLY degradation in quality is on the finish. The blue is not so polished and there are more internal machining marks but the seems to be no degradation in fit or function. And no mismatched serial numbers :-)
The biggest trick for Imperial Regimental Marks is Jeff Nolls book "The Imperial German Regimental Marking." They are out of print now so it would be good to get one before they go through the roof.
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