Letter 'K' on Persian Contract Luger Magazines

[guns3545]

Originally Posted by DavidJayUden

So the "k" is not in the usual location as the suffix, ie under the numbers on the front of the frame?
dju

The suffix, appearing beneath the serial number on the front of the frame of military and some commercial production at Mauser is a part of the serial number of the gun.

The Farsi characters to which I referred are inspection/acceptance marks of the Persian Empire.

The Persian series consisted of approximately 3000 or so Lugers divided into two variations; a standard 4 inch barrel and an artillery model, plus 50 cutaways. The last, not subject to proofing and acceptance because they were non-firing.

The Persian contract guns were serialized in Farsi characters without the need for any suffix to the serial number. The volume was small. Suffixes came about to accommodate hundreds of thousands of guns being produced by DWM and Mauser. Producing them in blocks of 10,000 with suffixes was a much more manageable way to keep track of them.

The THA and K Farsi characters are analogous to the acceptance marks found on Mauser German military production, e.g DE63, which was in use at Mauser during the same period of time. Note that the Persians did not do proof testing themselves. Persian guns are Crown U proofed as were other Commercial guns produced by Mauser at the time.

Thus a properly inspected, proofed and accepted Persian contract gun had marks of the German Proofhouse, plus the Persian acceptance marks on the gun and magazines referred to in my previous message.

John