[John Sabato]

Hi Jack, to the best of my recollection, the only Lugers that have hint to the first two digits of the serial number are the late war manufacture Mausers. Inside the sideplate of the gun is a two digit number that is one digit higher than the first two digits of the serial number... This doesn't happen on the other manufacturers guns.

Example. If the 4 digit serial number is 4257, then the 2 digit number stamped on the inside of the sideplate will be 43. At least that has been my experience on all the late mausers I have handled. Why the Germans did this? I have NO idea.

SO, if the sideplate on your Mauser happened to be the same last two digits of the serial number but the inside number isn't one digit higher than the first two digits of the serial number, then your sideplate wouldn't be the original one.