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Help Identifying a Colt 1911 with X- serial number
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12-10-2011 03:27 PM
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Beginning in 1924 Springfield Armory began renumbering pistols that had lost their serial number for one reason or another. The serial numbers started at X1000 and went to X4385, and these were used up until 1953. Also, following WWII a second set of numbers were issued to various arsenals for the same purpose, and these numbers started at X2693614. The pistol could have been stolen, and when recovered had the serial number removed, or the serial number could have been lost during refinishing.
The pistol shown appears to have had it's serial number removed. Since the new serial number was issued and applied by a branch of the U.S. government, it is legitimate. That said, pistols that had their serial numbers removed and never returned to the government could have also had an X prefix serial number added by anyone in order to give it legitimacy. A close examination of the pistol shown might give clues as to whether it is legitimate or not. The pistol shown falls into the serial number range from approximately 500000 to 629500. The barrel is a Colt commercial barrel fitted to match pistols in the 1935 to 1942 time period.
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I also found this information:
In Hallock's .45 Auto Handbook, they are said to be replacement numbers for frames that had their serial numbers rendered illegible by the sandblaster during arsenal overhaul. Acording to him, around 5000 frames were numbered this way.
I have found them listed in the Clawson book, here is what Clawson shows about X numbered 1911s:
X1000-X1178 179 pistols on Apr24,1924 @Springfield Armory
X1179-X1180 2 pistols on Dec 23, 1924 @Manila Arsenal
X1181-X4385 3205 pistols from 1925 to 1953 @Springfield Armory.
There were 1599 more from 1949 to 1956.
Clawson also says that marking pistols with the initials of the rebuilding arsenal began in the late 1930s. So this gun looks proper, rebuilt at Springfield Armory probably in 1925, was most likely originally manufactured in 1919. Thank you for your input...
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That is certainly in line with what I posted, except the pistol shown appears to have it's serial number removed in some method other than sandblasting. That was the reason for the caution about the X serial numbers being added to stolen pistols with the original serial numbers removed by their new owners.
Adding the initials of the rebuild facility was always a hit or miss proposition, as a high percentage of military rebuilt pistols just don't have the initials of the rebuild facility.
The barrel was certainly not original to a rebuild.