Luger Po8 serial no. question

[Elbert P . Suggins]

I hope there are some Luger guys on here that can help me with a question. I bought a PO8 Luger with a 1939 manufactured date with a '42' on the top that has the eagles over 63 on the right side. All the parts including the walnut grips are matching numbers which is 23. The mag is an aftermarket though. My question is, even the number on the left side of frame is still 23 where on other Lugers that is the position for the full serial number. No where else on the gun can I find anything other than 23. Could this be the 23rd gun off the Mauser assembly line? No numbers have been removed or scrubbed off in front of the 23 on the left. I have no pictures to show you but have tried to describe it the best I can. Would appreciate help with the question on the 2 digit number. Thanks.

 

[schmidtundveßon]

The full serial number should be under the barrel (four digits plus one letter), the last two digits being 23. For more information go to http://www.lugerforum.com/.
If it were 23rd gun off of the assembly line its serial would be 0023a. Hope this helps.

 

[Elbert P . Suggins]

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. The Luger people said that I had one that had a serial number 23W. I found the W under the 23 on the front of the frame. They started with 1A-999A on up to 1Z-999Z. Thanks for your help.

 

[Jim K]

Each manufacturer actually started numbering over every year. The began with 1 (no leading zeros), went to 9999, then 1a to 9999a, 1b to 9999b and so on. Obviously any given number will have a lot of duplicates, so a full and correct description of a military Luger must include the manufacturer (the 42 code was Mauser), the year (1939), the serial number and the following letter, if any.

Jim