Browning 1900

[pedro243]

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

Information

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[Gil Boyd]

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

[pedro243]

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