Factory Nickel Nazi Party Official P38?

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Skarekrow88

New member
I know it might be hard to tell from this photo alone but is this legit? Was there even any record of P38’s coming from the factory with a nickel plating? I'm highly interested in picking this up but I'm wary because of all the nickel plated Luger's out there that people claim to be from the factory when that was never a thing.

https://imgur.com/UNtUMyP

UNtUMyP.jpg
 
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I'm no P-38 expert, but I have done a lot of metal finishing.
Unless the dealer can prove this is factory nickel AND a Nazi party official gun, I'll say it's simply an aftermarket plated gun.
 
It's a late war Spreewerke P-38
Everything I've read says that there were no factory nickel Walthers.
CVQ, or CYQ Spreewerke only built P-38s in 1944-1945.
So I would pass, unless they can document it, I would bet it was plated in the 50s or 60s.
 
The lettering looks really washed out.
I’d be curious why he believes it’s a Nazi Party Official gun.
The Nazi Party seemed more enamored with the PPK.
I’ve never seen anything associated with a Party Leader anything that was simply nickeled or chromed. Only plating was on engraved guns.

Curious, what’s his asking price? To me, that’s a badly plated shooter grade gun. At best.
 
Years ago I had a nickel plated Luger. A gun smith told me to examine the stamped numbers under a strong glass. If the sharpest indentations were filled in by the nickel plating then suspect an after mkt plating job as serial numbers were stamped on as the last step in manufacturing.
Alas, my Luger was down graded to "shooter". SOB !
 
Some presentation guns have been documented, that were plated and had bespoke cases.
But even those were not factory plated. It was done by a third party.
 
I find the tag price difficult to read. If its $2995 the seller is high, and I mean high as in on drugs. If its $1995 the seller is still high, and if was "only" $995 the price would still be too high.

I have seen one other nickel P.38, in a shop about a decade ago, asking price was $900 and it has the original period correct holster. A consignment gun it sat there for several months. Finally went away, though I don't think anyone actually bought it.

What is pictured is, as 105kw pointed out a late war gun from one of the subcontract manufacturers.

It may have been nickel plated by a factory, some factory, sometime after WWII. but it wasn't done by the factory that made the gun. There were no "factory nickel plated P.38s" produced during WWII.

Next point "nazi party offical"...well, no, not hardly. Either way you take the statement, its not correct in historical terms, or general terms, unless the seller has the valid documentation to prove it is a rare exception to the general practice, which, I doubt. If the seller is not deliberately lying, then they are misinformed, or most likely just ignorant of what the Nazi markings
actually mean.

There was no Nazi Party "official" handgun. The German military did, but the Party did not. Nearly all Nazi uniforms include a pistol, but there was no "party standard" pistol.

Now, if they mean they think the gun belonged to a Nazi Party Official (a person), that is doubtful. P.38s were first line standard military pistols. Along with the P.08 (Luger) they went first and mostly to military personnel, and not just officers.

Party officials invariably wore other pistols, usually smaller ones. Walthers, Mausers, Sauers, and others and including pistols from captured nations were all used. Nazi Germany was always chronically short of pistols (due to nearly every Nazi uniform down to the mailman and dog catcher needing a pistol. They used about everything they got their hands on , and those guns were marked with Nazi Eagle & Swastika proof marks so today the uninformed might think those markings mean it was used by a Nazi Party official,
The Nazi WaA Pruf (WaffenAmt Pruf) is often only partial but if clearly stamped it is an Eagle and Swastika and an office number, and it is an acceptance stamp showing the gun passed inspection and is accepted for official service. That's all.

I'm not saying that specific P.38 could not have been worn by a Nazi party official but it would be very uncommon, and without valid historical documentation of WHO it came from (Gauleiter of Wittemberg.. etc.) then its just speculation and is only a story, to inflate the price.

The Nickel plating has destroyed its historical collector value. Its not a collector's piece, its a plain jane late war P.38 someone brought back from the war, or imported before 1968 and had nickel plated. Its not worth the asking price, not even close.

Not a presentation gun, either. I've seen several German presentation guns, including Nazi ones. and all of them were engraved, a little, or most usually a lot up to full coverage. Again, absent valid documentation, its just a BS story.

I do not accept the claim on the tag at face value, and anyone who buys that gun does so because they want a shiny P.38 more than they want the outrageous sum of money they are asking for it.

Not a good deal, in my opinion.
 
Le Harve , France was where many guns were plated. I saw a nickel plated FN Brn AR that an American officer had done there. Lots of Allied troops had trophy guns done their.
 
OP, even if you don't want to take the word of random strangers on the internet, before you make any purchase of a WWII German gun, do yourself a favor and do some research, maybe even contact someone like Tom Whitman at Legacy Collectables. Not to buy a gun, but Tom has been a collector of German guns for many years and he can tell you whether the particular gun you are looking at is likely to be real or a fake.

Nazi era items have been faked for so many years that even some of the fakes are approaching 70 years old and have enough age on them to look authentic. Once you have been in the game for a while you will know what to look for as far as original finish and correct parts. It used to be that P38's weren't valuable enough to be worth the effort of the fakers that exploit a buyer's ignorance. That activity was reserved for Lugers, single rune K98's, Nazi daggers and other high end items.

I have never heard of a factory plated P38. There were some Walther PP and PPK's that were embellished at the factory, but they are in well documented serial number ranges. Plus, Spreewerk (factory code cyq), made the roughest finished p38's of the three manufacturers so it is very unlikely that anyone would use one of them as a basis for a presentation gun.

I collect P38's, Lugers, 1911's and other military firearms from around the world and I wouldn't buy that gun even to use as a shooter.

As has been said already many time in this thread, the dealer is either terribly ill informed, or a thief. Run away from that one and look for another.
 
I'm no expert, but my guess is a GI ringback and he had it plated - certainly not unheard of. I'm not a P38 expert, but in 60 years of studying guns, I have never seen a factory plated P38 nor ever heard of one. My guess is that IF there was ever one made for a high rank Nazi - the lettering and stamps would be crystal clear.
 
I have seen one other nickel P.38, in a shop about a decade ago, asking price was $900 and it has the original period correct holster. A consignment gun it sat there for several months. Finally went away, though I don't think anyone actually bought it.
Click to expand...

I spoke with a friend today, who also saw that same gun, and he corrected me on the time frame, it was actually about 20 years ago. And that same gun has resurfaced again at a different gunshop in town. Its also a CYQ gun, and the asking price is still $900!

My friend says CYQ guns were more likely to be nickel plated by post war owners because they were the roughest finished P.38s made. CYQ (Spreeewerke) only made them during the last year of the war, and finish on the guns was poor, intentionally so, they wasted little effort on cosmetics. They function well enough, I've heard, but compared to earlier P.38s they look like crap.

My P.38 is an AC 42 (Walther) with the original finish in good condition. Its not S&W blue by a long shot, but its a decent serviceable blue/black finish that doesn't look bad.

Unless/until someone else buys it, I know where you can get a nickel plated P.38 for a LOT less than the barking stupid asking price of the gun in the OP picture. IF you want one....

I don't.
 
A correction to the above post:

Production started at Spreewerk Werk Grottau in June, 1942, with the first years production totaling only 7,050 guns. By 1943 they were up to speed and produced a total of 107,850 that year. In 1944 they made 126,980 and in 1945 they managed to make 41,200. They produced P38's right up until the end of hostilities.

In total they managed to make 283,080 guns, compared to Walther's 584,500+ and Mauser's 323,000.
 
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Thank you for correcting my mistake.
All of the Spreewerke P-38s I remember have been 1944-1945, and were really roughly finished. I would bet most were plated because they looked rough. Also the original liberators never thought they were going to be worth anything.
 
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