Dwight is correct in stating that the pistols were not produced in "blocks" of 9999. That was a poor choice of words on my part and I would have been more correct to have said that Imperial Lugers were numbered in blocks of 1 - 9999 with each year (1911, 1912 etc.) beginning at serial number 1 (no suffix letter) and going to 9999 (no suffix letter).
At that point, the next pistol through the line would have been given number 1 with the suffix letter "a" (or "1a"). The sequence would have continued until they reached "9999a" and then it would begin once more at "1b" and so forth through the alphabet (no letter "j") until the next year began the sequence all over again.
At no time during Imperial German production did Lugers reach the "z" block. Later Mauser production did reach "z" and revert back to "1" (no suffix letter) by not resetting their numbers for each new year. They continued in sequence right through into each new year without a break.
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