Originally Posted by ithacaartist
John,
First, welcome to the forum! Judging by your username, you already know the potential peril for changing one's life that collecting Lugers can be. Others will with more hardcore experience and expertise will likely chime in, here, e.g. Jerry (Lugerholsterrepair) in response to the part of your query about the leather, but I'll have a whack at getting you started.
1) The numbers on the mag would be stamped on the wooden (properly)bottom. If the ser. number is followed by a "+" sign, the military style of indicating that it was the spare. If it's followed by a number, that would be police style, and not correct for an Arty.
The butt stock's iron should have a serial, maybe partial, number, and some proofs if military.
2)This one's for Jerry
3)Always remember value is in proportion its condition as it first saw daylight out of the factory door. Obviously, other factors affect value, as well, but you can see where this is going. Your gun has been messed with/defaced at least by the social security number. Technically, it's part of the gun's history, literally; It's your choice to keep it as is in remembrance of your great grandad, or arrange for its removal and refinishing. But bottom line is that it's a shooter because of this issue, albeit an all-matching shooter, which is indeed nice to have. Very generally, you should be able to buy/sell a nice shooter like this around $1k. Lugers, like everything else, vary as to the meeting points of where they are happily bought and sold.
The forum, like science, is self-correcting. As I post my comments, they will be reviewed by many whom I hope I am worthy of calling my peers. The responses will fine tune your situation over time. And, always, we love photos, optimal resolution for posting, and the clearer, the better. They will never equal checking out a Luger in-hand, but give us all you've got!
Have fun with it!
DP
|