German s/42 G Code Mauser P08 Luger, manufactured by Mauser in 1935. The Treaty of Versailles only allowed the German Simson & Company to produce any of the few small arms granted Germany after World War I, arms production was done secretly at Mauser, among others. When Germany began to rearm itself in the 1930s, it used these letters instead of numbers to annotate the year of production of Lugers. The “S” stands for “Simson” to throw off suspicion, and “/42” was the rest of the code for the Mauser factory. Dates were left off of the barrel until about 1936 when Germany’s arms production and military activities started to be brought into the light.
The barrel extension is marked “G” on the chamber ring (code for 1935 production), the left is marked with the serial number. Typically the extractor is marked with the last 2 digits of the serial number, found again on the trigger, sideplate, takedown lever, safety, bolt stop, the left of the firing pin, breech-block, top of the front toggle link, rear of the back toggle link, and the sear. The top is marked “S/42” (Mauser production code).