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James K · August 16, 2011, 04:39 PM

Thanks for the kind words, Winchester 73. James K is the person you mentioned; I asked to have my screen name changed.

The 1920 Lugers are interesting. While some Lugers really were made in 1920 and have that as the only date, most are double dated. After WWI, the new German government was desperately trying to control gun ownership for the usual reasons - distrust in government was high and the government was scared blipless of all those ex-soldiers, many of whom just took their guns home when many units of the German army just dissolved.

So they passed an amnesty law allowing people to turn in military weapons for a reward; those guns were to be marked with the date of the law, 1920, to show that they were again government property and to prevent them from being stolen and turned in again. For Lugers, that meant the 1920 "date" was stamped on the gun in addition to the original date of manufacture; collectors call those guns "double date" Lugers.

Then the Germans, desperate for hard currency, and having a major asset in Lugers, began to scrub wartime pistols and make new ones for export. Since the Versailles treaty banned production of 9mm pistols, those guns are in 7.65 Parabellum, the original Luger caliber. (We call it the ".30 Luger.") While those guns don't have any date on them, they are often also called "1920 Lugers". Generally, they don't bring as high a price as untouched German military pistols.

Jim

August 16, 2011, 04:39 PM	#4
James K Member In Memoriam Join Date: March 17, 1999 Posts: 24,383	Thanks for the kind words, Winchester 73. James K is the person you mentioned; I asked to have my screen name changed. The 1920 Lugers are interesting. While some Lugers really were made in 1920 and have that as the only date, most are double dated. After WWI, the new German government was desperately trying to control gun ownership for the usual reasons - distrust in government was high and the government was scared blipless of all those ex-soldiers, many of whom just took their guns home when many units of the German army just dissolved. So they passed an amnesty law allowing people to turn in military weapons for a reward; those guns were to be marked with the date of the law, 1920, to show that they were again government property and to prevent them from being stolen and turned in again. For Lugers, that meant the 1920 "date" was stamped on the gun in addition to the original date of manufacture; collectors call those guns "double date" Lugers. Then the Germans, desperate for hard currency, and having a major asset in Lugers, began to scrub wartime pistols and make new ones for export. Since the Versailles treaty banned production of 9mm pistols, those guns are in 7.65 Parabellum, the original Luger caliber. (We call it the ".30 Luger.") While those guns don't have any date on them, they are often also called "1920 Lugers". Generally, they don't bring as high a price as untouched German military pistols. Jim