Really nice broomhandle

[alvin]

Originally Posted by Karl

Is that a "2" under the "1" on the bolt serial number?
KFS

I think so. The bolt was renumbered.

There are many indicators leading viewers to believe this is a refurbished gun: C/C/U on this variation under blue is not right, grip panels do not look right either, better milling than average, etc.. all can be explained as German refurbishing. But GERMANY also under blue is weird, unless GERMANY was added before refurbishing... Plus this renumbered bolt.

It's already $2725. Mint original standard C96 with matching stock from Sturgess collection sold $10k in Julia. That's the roof. This one may still have room on gunbroker.com. We will check a week later.

[Olle]

Originally Posted by alvin

all can be explained as German refurbishing. But GERMANY also under blue is weird, unless GERMANY was added before refurbishing... Plus this renumbered bolt.

Wouldn't the "GERMANY" stamp indicate an exported gun, so why do you suspect a German refurbish?

I don't think I would be too worried about the double number on the bolt though. It looks like those "one number off" factory mistakes that was corrected. I have seen this on quite a few guns, and the most likely scenario IMO is that the worker who stamped it had a bad day, and the error was corrected before the gun left the factory. Could have been done by the worker who stamped it to begin with, or the worker who assembled the gun. It would be less likely that a modern day owner happened to find a bolt that close in the number range and renumbered it. I have had two or three guns with similar number changes, so I wouldn't lose any sleep over it.

[alvin]

Originally Posted by Olle

Wouldn't the "GERMANY" stamp indicate an exported gun, so why do you suspect a German refurbish?

For exporting, exporter also wanted to sell a good price. Compare with those prewar C96, wartime production's milling and fitting quality was relatively low. To sell a better price, enhancing surplus pistols a little bit for exporting was very natural.

The Standard C96, in a seller's words (not this seller) that I totally agree "every kid should have one of these - Mauser Standard C96". Although being common, super nice samples of this variation are very collectible. Those rare 6-shot and 20-shot cannot replace Standard C96's position in a collection -- this was the variation making this type of pistol world famous.

I have gotten mine:

[Olle]

Originally Posted by alvin

For exporting, exporter also wanted to sell a good price. Compare with those prewar C96, wartime production's milling and fitting quality was relatively low. To sell a better price, enhancing surplus pistols a little bit for exporting was very natural.

So when you say "surplus", you're talking about brand new guns that were never issued to the military? Or did the actually refinish and enhance used guns for export?

[alvin]

Originally Posted by Olle

So when you say "surplus", you're talking about brand new guns that were never issued to the military? Or did the actually refinish and enhance used guns for export?

On old dealer catalog, there was a category described as "reconditioned". It's unclear its state before exporting. For this shape, it's at most lightly used even it had been issued in the war.