Help with Identifing Markings 1914 P08

[ithacaartist]

Originally Posted by alanint

I still feel that the large "cloud" halo around the bore guage mark makes the halos in general suspect.

The first pic definitely shows them as weird. Sometimes a pic lighted by flash can see through the surface. I'll cite two examples I've observed. I first noticed this phenomenon in a pic of a female acquaintance, in a black, knit Halloween costume. The image revealed the woman's bra and skin beneath the top's material. This happened because the light from the flash travels parallel to the line of sight of the camera. It's like using a flashlight to look into a hole--get it up by your eye; the closer to the eye, the further down into the hole you can see. The tiny spaces in knit material let the light thru to whatever is at the bottom of it (or in this case, what is behind the holes) to light what's there, then straight back out to be recorded by the camera. I've seen similar, flash-lit pics of celebrities on the net with this "X-ray" effect. The second example was a pic of me at a meeting. The pic made the area on top of my head, where the hair is thinnest, look as if the male pattern baldness had completed its job--the top of my head looked completely bald in the pic!

The haloed areas around the characters look weird in two ways. First, the edges of the halos in question are fairly distinct, and I'd expect them to fade out gradually as distance from the displaced metal increases--more of a gradient effect. Second, they are lop-sided--I think more than could be accounted for if the die were tilted a bit to one side when struck.

To reproduce this effect, one could dab a bit of rust/bluing remover onto each letter with the intent of lightening up the bluing in the area. Viewing the pics full size, the halos' distinct edges are pronounced. The "X-ray" effect of the flash may be revealing this, as it appears to show a small "puddle" area associated with each character.


Ron's point about this example's not being worth the fakery is well taken. Comparison--same resolution, same lighting--to another, but known, example would help. Has anyone had the same effect occur when taking a flash pic of any other original Luger of similar date of manufacture?