There is another 3-line AE chamber crest five-digit serial number 80503 advertised by a Luger retailer. In the description, the gun dealer quotes sections from The Mauser Parabellum 1930 – 1946 by Hallock & van de Kant: ...that it is certain that the third-line was not applied by DWM before the end of 1929 and that this may have been done by either Stoeger or Mauser on the request of Stoeger.  See Page 454 in above reference for 1922-1926 Stoegers.

Other dealer/seller comments regarding 80703:

The fact that Stoeger ordered and advertised different 9mm barrels lengths; the Crown U appears on a DWM Barrel that has the distinctly cut barrel band of DWM leaving open the possibility that the barrel was changed and the third-line added by Stoeger to one of the first American Eagle two-line alphabet guns. No one will ever know. In any case as a complete rig, this is a rare find out of an old collection. Here we can see the front of the muzzle and the serial number with the suffix "n" from the "alphabet" series of undelivered Lugers DWM converted to post war commercial guns for sale anywhere. Rekindling their old market, they added the American Eagle and over stamped the export "Germany" to comply with international customs regulations to fill a Stoeger order. Note: AE chamber crests are not “added” later to any DWM receiver as all AE stamped receivers were made prior to WW1.

Pictured on page 454 are three early Stoeger marked Luger Pistols with the title: Three early Stoeger marked Luger pistols, 1922 – 1926.  The below caption description show three Stoeger Lugers, two of which sport five-digit frame and barrel serial numbers; The first being 85419 with a 2-line address and the second being 90667 with most importantly, sporting only the third-line frame rail roll die stamping which as stated, suggesting assembly or rework after 1929.

With the published identity of these two five-digit Stoeger Luger frames, makes a total of three: (80703, 90677, 94182) 1920 – 1921 manufactured (1930 assembled) five-digit Stoeger Lugers with the third-line frame rail roll die stamping. Why these early 1920s frames would be available as late as 1930 is unknown, although the frame rail stamping somehow involves Mauser. However, of the three serial numbers, 94182 is the only Stoeger Luger with a replacement barrel, furthermore, there exists no recognized five-digit commercial Artillery Luger as DWM originally manufactured, pre WW1, only post WW1 assembled guns. One possibility, although unlikely, is that 94182 was originally assembled with a 30 Cal 98mm barrel by Mauser for the Stoeger contract that was changed out by Stoeger in New York with an Artillery spare barrel. An alternate possibility presented in The Mauser Parabellum 1930 – 1946 on page 441 states that August Weiss first 10 delivered Stoeger 3-line Lugers were reworked, prior to delivery in Berlin… because Stoeger wanted various (length) barrels on these pistols.

Dr. G.L. Sturgess' initial review of the configuration of 94182 has come to some slightly different and unique alternate conclusions:
The barrel is a military spare from WW1 as it has the bore gauge diameter, which was part of the military acceptance marking, as well as the proof eagle applied to the side. These have been polished over (the bore gauge is usually seen to be through the bluing), and I feel the whole gun was refinished in 1931/32 when it was probably finished by Mauser, as the older markings all show slight polishing over, whereas the last set, the frame third line Stoeger mark do not.

Sturgess further states:
The small parts serial numbers, except the rear toggle, which is renumbered with the modern style dies, most probably are those of the original P.08 donor gun, and look to be original DWM stamps. The small 82 stamps on the rear sight seem to me to be an addition made at the time of final finishing by Mauser, to match the sn transferred from the donor P.08 on which the frame etc. are based, as it is not a regulation die size for an original WWI period barrel, and was probably done when the rear sight leaf was cut away to fit the receiver. The rear link serial number is not a restamp, as the rear link stamped 82 appears to be softened as a result of the rear “V” notch removal and reblue, indicates that the numbers were there before the integral rear “V” notch was removed.

Other questions posed to Sturgess. The second matter is the frame sn font size and style. As far as I can tell the last 2-digits 82 of the frame and barrel are identical in size and style to the trigger and receiver stamped 82 digits. So if the frame sn was stamped by Mauser then so was the trigger and breechblock.

The same applies if the stamps were applied by DWM/BKIW. This doesn’t seem to resolve any issues but certainly, in my opinion, makes none of these numbers boosted or faked. I've done a transparent overlay of the numbers from your photos, and agree the same dies were used. The rear link serial number is not a restamp, as the rear link stamped 82 appears to be softened as a result of the rear “v” notch removal and reblue, indicates that the numbers were there before the integral rear “v” notch was removed. Assuming, as Sturgess states, that the last 2-digits 82 of the frame, barrel, breechblock, trigger and rear link are stamped with the same number fonts, applied by Mauser in the mid- 1930s, by inference so were the first 3-digits of the serial number 941. Then, also by inference, the rear link also was modified by Mauser that creates a situation of:

1. Why in the rebluing of the modified rear link were the numbers softened or over polished?
2. The rear link was originally a P.08 style rear link with an integral “V” rear sight with the last 2-digits 82 numerical fonts being identical to the balance of the gun stamps bring up the possibility of two guns with the identical font size and style?

The Stoeger lP.08 serial number is quite bizarre. Evidently it was fully finished by BKIW in the late 20s, as the C/N proofs, including the barrel, show, possibly by rebarrelling one of the earlier Stoeger two-line guns held in stock by BKIW, but the Gesichert/Geladen marks rather than Safe/Loaded are more consistent with other Stoeger lP.08s, like my later 3-line 1183v. The absence of GENUINE indicates shipping in the early 1930s, and the third-line on the frame shows it to have been reworked with this marking by Mauser after May 1930.

The serial number is by far the highest 5-digit commercial I have seen too. I suspect that there was a hiatus when the numbering changed to the military system, probably at 91999 to 2000i and a number of then illegal configuration guns under Versailles, some of which have Stoeger marks/association (2-line address and/or Safe/Loaded) were finished by DWM/BKIW with out of sequence serial numbers, possibly for reasons of concealment or deniability. My cased Stoeger P.04 and lP.08 with sub 2000i numbers, 74i and 246i, and a few other similar low i sn range guns are examples, and I suspect this gun with an out of range 94182 number is an earlier example of such a weapon with an illegal configuration made up for Stoeger. The frame serial number is also not applied as the "real" 90/91xxx serial numbers, as it does not hug the edge of the stop lug cutout as do the normal 90/91xxx gun serials, so I suspect it was not made up at the same time, but later during or after the transition to the i suffix block. Sturgess presents a most likely scenario, but not necessarily due to frame serial number alignment issues as there are exceptions to the Sturgess theory of 5-digit frame alignment placement, one example being 90677.

In support of the originality of the 94192 frame and barrel serial number are comments presented by Dr. W.A. Reupke in Weimar and Early NAZI Lugers on page 30.

“²²Reupke has noted a very sparse scattering of Lugers (6) in the 92000 to 97000 serial range and in the 1i to 2000i suffix range. These are Stoegers, Abercrombie & Fitch, Dutch or blank toggle Lugers. The transition from the 5-digit serial number range to the Alphabet suffix serial number range is not without overlap and may even have taken place at 100000 and 1i. The year 1921 is a period of allied intervention, large-scale destruction of military small arms, and conflict. It is too uncertain a period to rule out the above possibility.”^[3]

Sturgess stated: I don't think the gun is in any way a fake, but made up and finished over a number of years by DWM/BKIW/Mauser before finally being ordered and shipped to Stoeger around 1930 - 32. I agree it is a very interesting piece with a very chequered provenance within the factories before delivery to Stoeger. I would defend the gun strongly against accusations of faking - it looks dead right to me, and the peculiarities can all be explained quite well.

Sturgess later presents a different or alternate scenarioor theory of “Pantographed Master Impressions” for the origin of the stamps used to apply the 94182 serial number to the frame and barrel, suggesting the frame and barrel serial numbers were applied by Mauser, while not addressing as to why Mauser would apply a very high five-digit serial number to a 1917 DWM manufactured frame.  This Pantographed theory, interestingly, is not presented in The Borchardt & Luger Automatic Pistols by Görtz Sturgess.

I don't agree that the five-digit serial numbers are identical with pre 91999 numbers, as the positioning is quite different, being several mm under the stop lug cut in the frame front, whilst the top of normal 5 digit numbers in this range skim the bottom edge of the cut or even veer into the cut. Also the style is more modern than the original 1920's applied DWM/BKIW digits, as the 1, for instance, lacks the distinctive curve in the serif, and the lower serif of the 2 is smaller - compare with the serial numbers of two contemporary late BKIW made Stoegers in Fig 11-77 which show the typical DWM/BKIW die style of the period. In addition, the ends of the digits are curved, and although stamped, resemble Pantograph master die impressions. Don't get me wrong - I'm not saying the principal serial numbers are Pantographed, but that the dies that struck them were made from Pantographed master impressions, which appears to have been the technique used by Mauser, instituted in 1936, whereas DWM die masters were hand engraved and have sharper, usually squared off ends to the lines and serifs.

The Sturgess Pantograph theory of original number font die engraving is interesting, although 1936 is rather late, chronologically, for Mauser to be making up 3-line Stoeger Lugers, especially a 5-digit serial number Gesichert/Geladen Artillery Luger without the GENUINE in the third-line frame rail stamping, especially after all the fuss Stoeger made about its omission in May 1930. It is also not clear if the Mauser/Stoeger contract was still in force in 1936 as that is the period and beyond that the remaining Mauser inventory of Stoeger marked Lugers were shipped/sold to Palestine. Interestingly, no 1936 or later Mauser Luger has been identified with a frame or barrel serial number font size and style as found on 94182.

Another dealer and expert on Lugers examined 94182 and in a struggle to find fault was troubled with the sharpness of the stop lug edges of the 2-line Stoeger American Eagle chamber stamped receiver stop lug, stating that sharp edges were an indication that the stop lug surface had been “shaved” to remove a number or mark.  Subsequently, the measurement of the stop lug was determined to be correct by measuring from the top of the chamber to the surface of the stop lug against the standard new model factory-drawing dimension of 24.6mm +/- 0.1mm. The measurement of 94182 fell comfortably within the tolerance parameters, being 24.66mm, actually being on the high side of the tolerance. Therefore, the receiver is indeed a pre WW1 American Eagle V1 style chamber crested spare with a 1920s added 2-line Stoeger stamping, GERMANY import stamped, vertical C/N proofed receiver. Another Stoeger Luger in the collection, serial number 1107, a pre WW1 Stoeger V2 American Eagle chamber crested Luger 2-line stamped receiver also with a blank, but chamfered edge stop lug dimensions was checked against the factory drawing standard and was also found to be within specifications with the conclusion being, that to chamfer or soften the stop lug edges was completely arbitrary.

The Mauser Parabellum 1930 – 1946 in the section on Stoegers on pages 440/441 in the introduction states; “Collectors should be aware of this important fact.” Any pistol that is produced by DWM before the end of 1929 (5 digit commercials and DWM alphabets) should not have this third-line stamped on the right rail of the frame. If it is there (quite a few have been reported), it was after 1929. This might have been done by Stoeger in the USA, by Mauser on request of Stoeger or much later by boosters. It is sure, however, that it did not leave the factory of DWM with such marking. The registration which gave the support to the use of this line of text became valid at the end of 1929.

Regarding the above comments, the history of the components defines the history of the pistol, and the 94182 markings are all genuine, not the usual obviously misshaped and mis-positioned engravings of the “faked” pistols. Additionally, also stated in The Mauser Parabellum 1930 – 1946 on page 441 that; It is tempting to find an explanation why DWM/BKIW did not stamp the word GENUINE before the third-line on the right rail of the frame, as was apparently asked for by Stoeger. The conclusion or implication of this statement is that DWM/BKIW did indeed stamp the right side frame rail. So apparently, contrary to the statement of; It is sure that it did not leave the factory of DWM with such marking is contradictory, specifically in reference to DWM alphabet or letter suffix Lugers, namely the DWM/BKIW “v” suffix series.

The statement that “quite a few have been reported” yet, interestingly, none of these several “reported” five-digit examples have been examined, or if so, no published information or evidence has been put forth that supports or denies the authenticity of the alleged, unsupported assertion of “boosting”. Additionally, in the same paragraph where it states that five-digit serial numbered guns should not have this third-line stamped on the right rail of the frame, it, rather contrarily says there is the possibility that third-line frame rail stampings on five-digit serial number Lugers maybe legitimate under “certain conditions” and actually pictures a five-digit serial number Luger pistol 90677 with a third-rail Stoeger stamping on page 454 with a caption stating: this pistol has only the third-line of the Stoeger marking suggesting an assembly (or rework) after 1929.