Luger Date By Serial Number
Keith, welcome to THR!I hate to be the one to say this, but having a Luger without serial #s might be a bad thing. A friend/acquaintance of mine spent some time in the Big House for having such a thing. He had ground all the #'s off for some reason and the Man wasn't too thrilled about it.Unless you have documentation to somehow link this pistol to the OSS story.I'd be real hesitant to have it around. There are forensic types that can do testing to see if there were #'s that have been removed. Might be worth a try to see if they could find them.
Of course, if they find them.I don't know how you'd proceed then as the gun is technically contraband. If they don't find ANY trace of #'s having been there.well, the OSS story might be true and this would give you some evidence to support the contention that the #'s weren't removed after manufacture.AFAIK, All Lugers had serial #'s, and having one without them likely means that someone removed them at some distant time. Guns didn't need #'s until the GCA'68 (I think), but those that had #'s need to keep them to be legal.I might be wrong (and I hope I am) and maybe someone else more knowledgeable will come along and set this issue straight. Until then, posting pics of what might be contraband isn't the wisest thing to do. It is said of some collectible guns that there are more fakes around than real ones. If the serial-numberless OSS Luger story is real (and there are only 3), which one is more likely:1.
You have one of the 3.2. Someone 'created' one by removing serial numbers and refinishing.One supposes that the OSS would be interested in 'working' pistols, not safe queens-so the good condition here is another warning sign of likely refinishing. A collector thinking of buying this pistol from you would demand verification of authenticity by an expert-likely one of his (or her) choosing. A Luger is an extremely complicated pistol to manufacture.
You'd have to find or manufacture the tooling, then find experienced Luger machinists to create the pistols.Why would they do that when they had tens of thousands of captured WWI Lugers and tens of thousands of commercial Lugers widely available in every gun store in the US?I'm guessing that somebody went overboard refinishing an old Luger and polished out all the markings. It's a nice Luger, but the story that came with it doesn't hold water.
The other possibility is a GI assembled gun from leftover parts in a factory. There are many such guns around, though it's usually associated with P38's. The factories were in shambles and the GI's would root around and build souvenir pistols.I feel pretty confident in saying that it's not an OSS built gun. There would simply be no reason for them to build such a gun when Lugers were such a common pistol and so widely available. Think about it - it would be like the US secretly building 100 Browning HP's or Makarovs for special forces to carry in the field in the Iraq war. Why, when these pistols are everywhere? I have one with a 4 digit serial number, also in great shape.
If you are in any way concerned about the legality of yours I would happiuly assume that risk and trade you straight across for yours, (whether the story holds up or not) AND, Just to let you know how much more attractive mine is than yours is, Mine is much less expensive to enjoy, as it is chambered in.22lr.Given that you will most likely decline my kind offer, (sigh.), I would heartily reccomend that you try the folks over on for more detailed info on what you might have there.If you fail there, look me up! I am, at this point, quite jealous, but I would prefer that you not know that so as to not jinx our future deal. A lot of guns made in the US before 1968 GCA did not have serial numbers, especially singleshot.22 rifles and shotguns. A pre-1968 gun made by the factory with no serial numbers is not a violation.A gun with factory serial numbers ground off is a violation, but that is not what the OP describes.A lot of Axis guns 'liberated' from the factories by GIs did not have serial numbers (pre-final proof or whatever) and are still legit war trophies.Added: the Nazis built a small number of Mark II Sten guns copying all Brit markings including serial numbers for black ops use. They cost more than legit Stens, and they had captured enough Stens from the British that there are German photos of German troops during the battle of the bulge armed with Stens and US M1 carbines. It is hard to fathom what covert ops would use as a reason to counterfeit an enemy's guns when they had captured specimens, but they did it. Bgenn there, done that.
The fellows over on Lugerforum have a form that you fill and submit and they, (because it's thier hobby), will find the history and the value of the toy in question. I was horribly disappointed in the results that my purchase gave me, but at least I won't be telling any silly stories now. I have a reasonable idea of not only the value, but the history of my Turkish made treasure. OR, Go to LugerForum, (tag provided earlier, and then to Technical Info (on the left menu), and then to Luger ID sheets. Fill that out and then go to mosey about halfway down the page and reach out to yet another set of folks that know. (Now you have a second opinion).
Hmmm.Mine's still available by the way. Can't any talking-head here direct the OP to a legit source to prove/disprove the validity?As it happens, I was just looking for the website that disproves the theory that the Apollo moon landings were faked. Perhaps you can help?As almost said, 'Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof.'
Which claim is extraordinary here: that the Luger in question is a 3-in-the-world rarity; or that it isn't? Which claim requires the more extensive proof?Wait, I get it: the only reason there's no proof that it is an OSS pistol is because it was a super-secret program, and no records ever existed. Boy, that's going to be really hard to disprove!
The rule of thumb is, buy the gun, not the story.It is the burden of the seller to provide provenance and proof of unusual background.The buyer or casual onlooker doesn't have to disprove anything.If it came with an authenticating letter by Wild Bill Donovan, that would be one thing. Since it seems not to, that is another.In my limited experience, the gun appears to have replacement grips, replacement magazine, and a rather inferior reblue. Of course that could be claimed to be due to secret squirrel manufacture.
Luger Date By Serial Number List
Meanwhile, 'geladen' means loaded (my understanding is that Lugers had a round-in-chamber indicator) and 'gesichert' means safe.An attorney of my acquaintance had a German-born divorce client back in the postwar years whom he described as 'beautiful, blonde and carved from ice.' Her soon-to-be-ex-husband had threatened her in some fashion, and she told him to stay away from her in approximately the following terms, while pointing her Luger at him: 'If you come around again I will shoot you. And you would not be the first man I have killed.' Upon successful completion of the case, she gave her Luger to the attorney. Never did hear what became of it.