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WW II Browning Hi Power
CapnMidnight
Member Posts: 8,520 ✭
Appraised some guns today for a friend, his dad was a WWII vet, and passed last week. One of the guns was a Fabrique Nationale Belgium built Browning Hi Power, military type sight and all. Someone has removed the German Eagles on the lower left side of the slide and the frame with a file or course sandpaper. The rest of the gun is about 75-80%. The serial numbers all match, it is 127532. The Blue Book doesn't list the serial number as being proper for being a WWII German pistol. Can someone help me out on this?
Thanks for looking.
W.D.
Thanks for looking.
W.D.
Comments
The removing of the "WaA" markings and the 75/85% condition, has a very negative effect on collectors value.
Note that there are countries that proscribe any items bearing Nazi swastika markings, so the removal may have been mandated at some point.
I don't think this is correct.
There are some countries that ban open display of "hate" symbols, including the swaztika. Germany is one of these, and with certain specific exceptions, you cannot legally display a Nazi-type swaztika there (or perform the Nazi salute, etc). Germany also prohibits manufacture, storage, import, etc of such items when they are used as "means of propaganda".
This ban does not apply to mere ownership/possession of these symbols if they are not publically displayed and don't constitute "means of propaganda" (ie they're not intended to be displayed or seen by others). So sure, again, with certain exceptions (eg you're producing a television documentary, etc) you can't legally own a Nazi flag there, because by its nature something like that is intended for display.
I cannot possibly see how this ban could apply to teensy symbols engraved on period authentic WWII weapons or other collectibles held in private collection. IE, so far as I know there is no law in Germany or anywhere else requiring people to destroy swastikas or other Nazi markings on actual WWII guns.
As a matter of practice, the swastika was so universally reviled during and after WWII that sometimes people did this of their own volition, but that's a separate issue. The Russians typically peened or knocked out German markings (including swaztikas) on guns they captured and repurposed for their own use during wartime, but again, that's a different issue/question.
I may be wrong, but seems I recall that rather than using a straight up sequential numbering system for all Hi Powers FN duplicated serial number ranges from one nation's contract to the next.
Fact: Millions of imported RC K98k's still have them intact.
Romanians & (sometimes) Serbians are documented as those folks whom peen-out the tiny swastica in the firing proof on captured k98k's.