Crown/O Acceptance on Erfurts only?

[Dwight Gruber]

Don,

The mark you picture is identified as F on p.463 of the Sturgess "red edition".

--Dwight

[Ron Wood]

Originally Posted by Dwight Gruber

Don,

The mark you picture is identified as F on p.463 of the Sturgess "red edition".

--Dwight

Close but not quite. The F on p.463 has a very pronounced serif on the top left of the letter. The mark Don posted is sans serif. It does resemble the blurry image on p.462 that G&S identify as a F but it is hard to tell. Don's mark still most closely resembles the Fraktur O that he originally posted. As with many things in the early production and inspection marking of Lugers there appear to be exceptions to what has been published in the research. We are always learning.

[Don M]

Originally Posted by Dwight Gruber

The mark you picture is identified as F on p.463 of the Sturgess "red edition".

Dwight, I have looked at that and examined the stamping on my pistol. I concur with Ron about the lack of an upper left serif on my mark. I also blew up the photo on p. 463 and note that the horizontal bar on the F does not extend across the middle of the character although one of the illustrations shows it continuous but slanted. Mine is continuous and horizontal.

I also note that the O in G&S does not look anything like the O in the G&W Handbuch. I don't know why.

Since Still's list showing the existence of "O" stamps on many Erfurts was compiled before the publication of the G&S book, he and those submitting data must have used the representation in earlier references so I expect my id of my mark as O is consistent with theirs.

How the heck did Germans read this stuff?

[Ron Wood]

Originally Posted by Don M

...How the heck did Germans read this stuff?

You think Fraktur is bad, you should try Sütterlinschrift...that is really impossible.