[alvin]

The pistol on cover has "Universal Safety". The manual says it's a feature starting from s/n 800,000. The German patent of it was filed on Sept 24, 1929.

On "Mauser Archive", 1929 Order/Offer pages were translated. It's interesting to notice March 13 Mexican War Ministry ordered simply "C96 pistols cal 7.63". August 23 & 24 Arbeit ordered "C96 pistols cal 7.63, old model" and "C96 pistols cal 7.63, new model".

What was "old", and what was "new" in August of 1929? "new" could not be a pistol with Universal Safety -- the patent had not been filed yet. The "new model" must be "Transitional 1930" with NS safety, large grip, and 132m/m barrel. It was not called as "1930" by Mauser though. It's 1929 new model.

By Nov 11 1929, Arbeit ordered "C96 pistols, cal 7.63" again. No mention of "new" or "old" anymore. Probably old ones were all gone by that time. "new" was business as usual now, so there was no need to mention "new" anymore.

By Nov 7 1930, finally, Arbeit was able to order "C96 pistols Model 1930". This must be the "Early 1930" called by today's collectors, with Universal safety.

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The labor cost of making a Mauser 1930 was roughly 20% lower than making a Mauser Luger. Probably due to 1930 having lower requirement on tolerance mechanically?? Even small factories with primitive tools of that could make a few working example of C96s in that era, but I have never heard anyone could easily copy Parabellum.....