[mrerick]

Hi, and welcome to the forum from the Raleigh and Wilmington areas.

Some of the Lugers from 1939 had very thin salt blued finishes. This might have been one of them. The large "X" behind the serial number numeric digits on the left side of the receiver ahead of the trigger plate would indicate it was a Russian capture. It's also possible it was dip refinished, and then someone removed that finish.

Here's a picture of my 1939 with the thin finish for comparison to the appearance of your Luger (Note, I have since replaced the incorrect bakelite grips with proper unnumbered wooden ones...):

Marc