What do You Make Of This ??

[ViggoG]

I found this strange mark on the underside of my 1906 AE 55xxx.
It is located directly under the chamber next to the retaining lug directly above the "5".





I have made a few tentative inquiries with the only response being :
" I've never seen anything like that before".
Any IDEAS or SOLID INFORMATION will be greatly appreciated !
ViggoG
PS: Ihave found my Macro Lens and now can show the Strange Mark greatly enlarged below.

[Vlim]

Hi Viggo,

Some checking revealed a symbol that came very close and it is a Belgian preliminary proof. It a relatively unknown fact that Bayard/Pieper produced a number of Parabellum parts in the early days and there is a good chance that this may lead to the explanation of this mark.

[ViggoG]

Gerben,
Sorry to have mislead You Folks with a lousy Photo.
I have edited the original post and added on the Macro Photo below it.
After finding my Macro Lens the Marking shows to be different than I had been able to see with my 7X Inspectors Magnifier.
To mw it seems to appear to be an "Aries" or "Anchor" like symbol partially over struck on a previous mark of some kind, and is slightly mis-aligned there from.
Viggo

[Vlim]

Hi,

In this case I can only get in line with the rest of people stating 'Dunno...'

[Danny R. Bowles]

Hi Viggo, First of all where in Va are you? I,m in Southern WV.
I finally got back in the safe today to look at those AE,s of mine. The 1906 30 cal has a mark where yours is at but its worn down and can,t make it out. It does however have a P struck on the inside of the receiver at the front.
I took the 9mm down and there are no marks at all.
I wonder why the 9mm is not crown n proofed like my 30 cal? By the way Dwight if you read this I forgot to tell you that both of these pistols are Germany marked under the sn on the receiver.
Viggo , sorry I could not help you anybetter than this. Best Regards Danny PS. This sounds crazy but that marking on your weapon looks like something Eygptian.

[Dwight Gruber]

Danny,

Thanks for the GERMANY info.

Finding an answer to your question is exactly one of the reasons I have instituted this survey.

Most early Lugers do not have proof marks. This means they were intended from the beginning to be exported to the US, which has no national proof law, or to another country which would proof the gun on its own. Any early Luger with a proof, either c/B, c/U, c/G or c/N, was completed in such a fashion as to be saleable in Germany and was then diverted to export.

The revision to the German proof laws which prescribed the Crown/N as a Nitro proof was published in September 1911; it was not until 1912 that all the German proof houses had these marks in use. Therefore your 9mmAE with no proof was manufactured explicitly for export to the US, probably before 1911, and your .30 was manufactured after 1911.

Actually, my preliminary results, from a so-far disappointingly small sample, are beginning to show that somewhere around 45000 in serial number range almost all 1906AE Lugers are to be found with BUG proofs, and somewhere between 48710 and 51000 (my data has this gap) this shifts over to almost all reported guns having the c/N proof. Filling this hole with data will pin down the year of manufacture of this part of the serial number range.

--Dwight

[Lugerdoc]

Viggo, As you know, this area around the receiver lug usually has some inspector's marks. I think that you're on the right track with the astrological symbols, as the symbol for Taurus (a semi=circle over a circle) was in common use on many 1900 models. TH

[saxman]

Hey Viggo; Southside, eh? Well, I'm an old Petersburg native. Used to go to the old Southside Virginia Fair on Farmer St.