[Ron Wood]

Spencer: Not all DH Lugers are 1920 reworks. It would appear that some unit, still unknown, marked Lugers on hand with this unique mark. Dates on these pieces range reportedly from 1911 to 1918 (mine is 1913). I know of no undated example. There is no way of knowing how many were produced. There are probably less than 20 surviving examples (and probably an equal number of fakes). The mark is definately a die stamp and not engraved. Most likely it is what is known as a roll die since the depth of the die impression is uniform along the curvature of the chamber. Contract Lugers were factory produced, and as you have observed, the country crests were perpendicular to the bore axis rather than parallel like the DH. To have the capability to roll die stamp a weapon would require a fairly high level arsenal (what the US military refers to as "depot" maintenance). Sure wish there would be some concrete information come to light to explain the existance of these interesting Lugers.