Browning 1900

Hi All,

I purchased a Browning 1900 from a long term dealer. He owned the gun for probably 30-40 years. After purchasing it and look at it with some more detail with a friend, we straight away noticed some differences between it and counterfeit 1900's.

Firstly the "safe" and "fire" stampings are missing , the trigger guard is missing from the engraved pistol logo, and all the writing seems to be hand engraved.

I have looked up the counterfeit 1900's and from what i have seen, most known examples have incorrect spelling, noticeably larger/smaller dimensions, poor finish and a large portion have the same serial number.

This example shows none of these obvious signs of a counterfeit, but it still appears to be a very high quality counterfeit.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

I have attached some photos with the handgun with a mates genuine nickel plated 1900 as reference.

Attachment 86461Attachment 86462Attachment 86463Attachment 86464Attachment 86465

The etching on the barrel looks fine but the larger print certainly doesn't look right if you compare it with the image below. The Chinese made a lot of Browning lookalikes though. Mind you with such a steady hand he's probably on their Bomb Disposal its a good job

yeah its confusing. the barrel markings, proof stamps and all that look spot on. the larger browning stamp and logo look hand engraved and the slide is missing a serration.

if it was genuine, the serial number places it towards the end of production. it could be made up of old parts buy i doubt it