luger id???

[DAVID]

This is a strange one to me. If anyone has any ideas on the correct id on this I would appreciate.


Pistol was purchased as a 1920 .30 cal.

barrel is unnumbered but stamped Germany on side.

Frame is numbered xx55 r. and stamped Germany on left side.


Breach block is unnumbered with horizontal Crown N proof on left side. Does have two numbers at the very rear of the opening for the firing pin.


Rear toggle is numbered 55 at rear.


Front toggle is unnumbered and Marked DWM. has some inspection numbers underneath.


Receiver is unnumbered but proofed with Crown N on left side.


Wood grips are numbered 55 inside.


Side plate is numbered 55 but in the commercial hidden location.


Take down lever is numbered 55 and also in the commercial location.


Rear toggle pin is numbered but mismatched.


Any ideas if this is a correct ?? 1920, 1923 or ??

[Kyrie]

Hi David,


Iâ??d say â??1920 Commercial.â?�


The term 1920 Commercial is really something of a slop chute category. Many of the Lugers reworked and sold commercially in the 1920â??s have something atypical about them (parts proofed but not numbered, not numbered but marked â??Germanyâ?�, commercial proofs on an Imperial military marked and numbered pistol, both commercial and Imperial military proofed, parts correct and correctly numbered, but showing signs that Imperial markings were removed, and so on, and on...).


Itâ??s long been suspected that DWM was not the only game in town when it came to reworking Lugers for commercial sale. All these variations strongly suggest there were any number of other concerns (some likely quite small) that reworked Lugers for sale outside of Germany.


Anyway, thatâ??s just my $0.02 worth, offered entirely FWIW....


Best regards,


Kyrie

[bill m]

Hi David,

I agree with Kyrie that this is a reworked Luger for commercial sales, but I do not agree with the term "1920 commercial". I feel that there is enough new information and research to support that all "alphabet Lugers" as Jan Still calls them, and "1920 commercials" as Kyrie calls them, were of New Manufacture. These are guns with a 4 digit serial number in the i through s blocks. The term "1920 commercial" was a term coined up over 50 years ago for anything that was in 30 Luger with possible a Germany stamped on it, and of new or reworked workmanship. Kyrie and I are thinking on the same terms, but just have a very different opinion on what to call these reworked guns. In my opinion, there is a hell of a lot of difference between a commercial gun of new manufacture and a reworked, refurbished commercial gun, and lumping them all together is not correct. There is a large difference in price from a new manufactured gun as compared to a refurbished gun. The old books refer to these guns as a 1920 commercial, but they actually could of been refurbished anywhere from 1918 to 1932. I'll just leave it as a post WWI reworked commercial Luger. Just my opinion --