Hey, you guys are good! Let me tell you more about this gun. Maybe it will help.
Most of the pictures posted on the web are taken two days ago, after Vern asked to see some pictures. The flash makes the defaced are look a lot worse than in natural light.
This gun has been fired as evidenced by some minor flaking in the bore at the muzzle. Other than that, the bore is clean, shiny and free from pits. How worn is it? I'd leave that to an expert. Looks pretty good to me.
As for imperfections, there are three very small pits on the left side of the barrel about 1/2 inch forward of the receiver, two at the muzzle, also on the left side. Other than that the barrel is pristine. The barrel alignment mark is perfectly matched to the receiver and looks like a single strike, so the barrel probably has not been removed.
There are pits in the lanyard loop and the bottom of the backstrap is somewhat pitted. That is pretty much the extent of the imperfections except for the magazine which, I agree, is not original to the gun.
As for the crest removal, a strong loop reveals that is was probably removed with an emery cloth as scratch marks are all parallel and perpendicular to the receiver. The remover then did a half baked blueing job.
Ron, you raise an interesting question about the possible originality of the finish. This would seem to couple with Vern's question as to why a professional restorer would not try to mask the crest removal. If so, one woud assume the rest of of the imperfections would have been dealt with also. Of course said restorer could be very clever and try not to make it look too good so as to cast some doubt as to it's originality.
Presumably there are collectors out there with original Portugese Army with the crest removed. It would be useful to see what the removed areas look like as well as learn more abouthte history of crest removal on these pistols.
What do you think?
Pete, I looked at your M2 in the gallery. It's a honey. Hey and isn't that photo of the 1900 the one posted on the Phoenix Investment site? I noticed that a recent bid of $150,000 did not make the reserve. Seems curious for a "freshened up" piece.
Peter
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