[Edward Tinker]

#40 What is a double date?

Here is another area that is brought up, especially in the GunShow circuit. Double dates. True double dates are fairly rare, and what most folks call a double date is really a Reichswehr 1920 property stamping. I quote Jan Still:The 1920 stamp was added sometime between August 1920 and April 1921. It is a Reichswehr property stamp applied to identify the Luger as German Army property to prevent theft. Civilians were paid a bounty for turning in their unauthorized weapons to be destroyed. The Army feared the theft of its unmarked Lugers for the bounty.(Weimar Lugers page 20-23)

See the date is 1917, while the 1920 is NOT a date, but a property stamping.

A 1920 date will have dove type acceptance stamps and 1920 property stamps on a pre-1920 will usually be a WW1, so will have crown acceptance stamps on the right.


Ed