Close-up picture of "Made in Japan"

[alvin]

Yes, Doug, you will see the whole gun, but I don't have good lighting, so have to wait tommorrow's sunlight.

The middle mark above the grip is a tiny star over F, pix attached. What year is it?

Also, here is another unusual finish that I mentioned earlier. I have seen many C96s with mint bore (of course, I have seen more C96 without mint bore), but I have never seen this before -- this Astra's chamber is golden, more like strawed. It's hard for me to believe chamber need any finish, but metal under heat in certain temperature range could show straw color. I would guess the straw color was the result of chamber heat treatment.