[Ron Wood]

The first 1906 AE Lugers in 7.65mm were made with the â??long frameâ?. The long frame has the appearance of the older 1900 model with a very rounded contour of the forward part of the frame between the barrel and the trigger guard. The picture that Thor posted is a â??short frameâ? with the more squared off appearance. The "long frame" designation comes about because the frame and receiver are about 2mm longer than the short frame.

Production of the 1906 American Eagle Luger started around serial number 25100. The first examples had the long frame. A few will be marked â??GESICHERTâ? on the rear of the frame by the thumb safety. One thought is that these safety marked frames used up a few frames left over from the 1906 Navy Commercial production. However, most early 1906 AE Lugers will have the usual unmarked safety with the bright polished area showing when the gun is on â??safeâ?.

A guesstimate on the number of 7.65mm 1906 AE Lugers produced is probably around 8000 or so. Of this number, the early long frame examples probably account for less than 1000. So after this long-winded explanation, the answer to your question is that the long frame, being scarcer, will generally command a higher price than a short frame in equal condition. A serial number of 30563 is quite a bit higher than the long frame range recorded to date, so I would think that the AE you are considering is a short frame.