Quote Originally Posted by xwarp View Post
the last pic shows the "weimar" bird proofs.

I disagree. Those do not appear to be Weimar proofs.

Maybe it's my dodgy screen. Maybe it's my dodgy eyesight. But what I see in that last photo are 3 Nazi WaA stamps, one above the other. You can just about read the first as WaA24. WaA stamps are acceptance stamps, not proof stamps.

The incomplete stamp shows an approximation to the Reichsadler (a mark that dates back before the Nazi era, so there is no need to go all coy and describe it otherwise). The "dirty" bit is the swastika in a circle below the eagle, which is only hinted at.

I do not have the link, but I seem to remember such stamps being for sale in the USAicon. If you can find one offered that looks like the dubious bird, combine that with the fact that I cannot find an exact match in a very authoritative Germanicon work, and draw your own conclusions.

As has been pointed out by others, it is conceivable that this mark was "accidentally on purpose" applied so as to be incomplete. One could imagine top and bottom being unclear if the stamp was not properly rolled around the curve of the barrel. But the wingtips are faded out left and right - not so easy to explain. Let us be generous and assume it is pure coincidence that the wingtips on the nearest match that I can find have a different form...