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Unread 06-24-2014, 08:58 PM   #6
Dwight Gruber
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Richard,

"1908 Commercial" is a rather casual designation. The 1908 pattern Luger was accepted by the German army in December 1908, and therefore designated Pistole 1908 or P08. The commercial version, identical in every respect, is commonly designated P08 commercial by collectors.

Production of these pistols, military and commercial, likely did not start until calendar year 1909. The first P08 recorded in the Commercial Database is sn 39142.

The original P08 was designed without a stock lug. The army instituted the change in P08 production to include a stock lug in August, 1913. Stock lug P08s show up in commercial production with sn 70185. The two styles of P08 were intermixed in commercial production until sn 71156, after which there are no reports of this style pistol.

A detail change was made to the frame machining of the P08 frame interior in late 1914. sn 71156 is in the middle of the range of reports of this change, which reliably dates the serial number to this year.

So, the range of the original pattern P08 commercial dates from 1909, approximate sn 39000, to 1914, earlier than sn 71172. Your serial number 55568 is roughly in the middle of that range.

The first lazy c/N proof mark shows up approximately sn 49000, and is found intermixed with c/BUG proofs until approximately sn 53190. This range of pistols can be roughly dated thereby to 1912.

I hope this answers your questions.

--Dwight
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