A few months ago I instituted this survey of circle-S marked Lugers, to discover if there were similarities or marking consistencies which might reveal the origin of this mark; which might help determine whether or not it is a rework mark of Simson, which many collectors assert is the case.
So far I have received only eight submissions. I had hoped that there were more of them out there to examine. While this sampling is not nearly large enough to come to any reliable conclusions, reviewing the data does prompt some interesting observations.
Reported samples range from Imperial military (all DWM), through 1914 Commercial and 1921-dated 20DWM (One is a complete, unaltered DWM LP-08 with matching stock and holster). All but one are 1920 property marked.
All appear to be unaltered from their original manufacture, there are no reported rework parts or markings. None are reported with TP Berlin armory marks. Only half the guns are reported with sear safeties, and only two of these with magazine safeties.
None are reported with Police unit marks, but three of the sear-safety guns are reported with back-frame numbers.
Other data is either sporadic or unreported, and does not conflict with or further these observations.
So far, it appears that the circle-S mark is not associated with a Police rework program (indeed, not associated with any rework program at all); and there are no physical markngs which support a particular Simson connection.
This mystery is not by any means solved, and I look forward to more data submissions.
--Dwight
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