Is This a Handstamp Inland?

[ChipS]

M1 Carbine Inland WW2 Rare SG contract receiver! : Curios & Relics at GunBroker.com


Look at the serial number pic. I've never seen anything like that before on an Inland.
$2000+ so far!! Yee Haw, I think my chance of retirement is looking better. Or, maybe it's a rare hand stamped receiver that I'm unaware of (seriously). Comments?

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[Bruce McAskill]

No it's not a hand stamped as they didn't come into use till they started making the M2 carbines and there are a couple of parts that while they are Inland are too early for the serial number.

[USGI]

Maybe like me, saw the 7 at the beginning of the s/n and immediately read it as 7 mil rather than 700K? - Bob

[ChipS]

My point was that the Inland Div. marque AND the serial number appear to be hand stamped with individual dies. I have seen serial numbers that appear to be individually stamped, though not on an early Inland, but I don't recall ever seeing the company name handstamped - particularly on an Inland. Some of them were pretty weak (NPM and IBM come to mind) but I thought they were all roll stamped with fixed dies. Is there any evidence that there were some individually hand stamped Inland marques and serial numbers? As best as I can recall, I have never seen an Inland receiver marked this way. This was a serious question.

[Bruce McAskill]

It's not hand stamped at all. It's a roll stamp for sure on it. Being a 6 digit number, they are larger then the later numbers but I see no evidence of hand stamping.

[USGI]

I think Chip has something - it looks quite a bit different than my 6 digit. - Bob

[Bruce McAskill]

I have one in the 321K range and several of the numbers are not quite 100% in line. The last number is just a wee bit lower then the others but it's a roll stamp. I see no difference between mine and this one other then the stamp was started a bit farther along. The person doing the stamping could have been having a bad day or was new to the job. Anything is possible but if you look at the later hand stamped receivers they are much more evident of being done by hand and I would think anyone who was hand stamping serial numbers would have been much more like the late Inlands.

[ChipS]

I have seen a lot of serial numbers up, down and all over the place, but not on an Inland. IMHO Inland typically produced the lettering most uniform in depth and alignment of all of the manufacturers. I am not a machinist so I don't know how much much slop there may be in roll stamp die fixtures. But it looks to me like the dies that struck the letters and numbers on the subject receiver were tilted at different angles, misaligned in both dimensions and maybe slightly in spacing. I understand that camera angles can play tricks and I am not saying the markings were changed. I just wanted some opinions as to if this one is normal - because I don't see it. I will try to attach pics of my Inland that is very close in serial number for comparion. Sorry for the poor quality of image. Thanks for all opinions.

Added: This receiver has not been sand blasted. The graininess is due solely to my camera and photographic skills.

[jimb16]

I think that you guys should know that Inland used several different sets of stamps during their production and some looked very different from the others. Those are rolled markings, not hand stamped. IBM did some "hand " stamping where the numbers were put into jigs and they were sometimes misaligned. Inland didn't do that.

[USGI]

I agree with Chip that it's odd to see the letters in "INLAND" with misalignment - may be the camera angle, but look at the L and A for example. - Bob