Mikes, The symbol on the bottom of the receiver and mag of your m1900 luger is technically not a "flaming bomb", but actually the astrological symbol for Taurus, which was use by a DWM inspector of most all M1900 lugers. The book "United States Martial & Collector's Arms" state on page 44 "There us no definite markings employed by the US GOVERNMENT which will positively identify these pistol. Any stamped letters, numbers or ORDNANCE TYPE FLAMING BOMBS found on the frame or receiver cannot be attributed to any US government agency. If a m1900 American Eagle, second issue pistol suspected of being a trial specimen it will have the following characeristics: 1.Serial number range of 5800 to 7800. 2.The word Germany will NOT appear on the pistol." Since the normal failure rate for most pistols of this period was at least 10%, i believe at at least 100 of the 1000 original contact pistols were returned to DWM (Hans Taucher?) for replacement for other lugers from the normal AE commerical serial range. For the more detail on the M1900 Us trial lugers, I highly recommend the book "1900 Luger, US test trials " by Michael Reese II. Tom (the Lugerdoc).
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