FN Browning Model 1899 and 1900, FN Browning 1903, FN Browning 1905 (1906) Vest Pocket and Baby Browning pistols. I suspect that the High Efficiency was made in very limited numbers just like FN did with the 1903 model before securing a large military contract. Just like distinguishing the 1899 and 1900 models, it is important to call a. The Model 1910 FN Browning was manufactured from 1912 through 1975. Production was halted during the two World Wars, though a few were assembled from parts during the German occupation in World War II. There was no interruption in serial numbers.
Friends, For those who may be interested, I am posting here a list of the serial numbers of all FN 1905 pistols that I have observed or seen reliable reports of. These numbers are taken from online auctions, dealer stock, reports from private collectors and various published sources.
Special acknowledgement goes to Anthony Vanderlinden, author of FN Browning Pistols: Sidearms That Shaped World History, whose serial number list of Russian contract marked pistols, police-marked pistols (and others) is incorporated into this master list, and to member Jason (jtshafiz), whose list of observed 1905 serial numbers is also incorporated here. Any additional reports are most welcome.
Note: In the descriptions, 'no safety' means no manual safety lever - trying to be brief so as to keep most of the entries on one line if possible. Also, remember that some of the descriptions/notes next to the serial numbers are not my own, so in some cases I may not be prepared to support or interpret them since they are occasionally copied as they were furnished to me in deference to the contributors.
![Numbers Numbers](http://www.warrelics.eu/forum/attachments/world-firearms/562080d1377903363-got-my-first-pistol-fn-1900-a-fn-model-1900.jpg)
Finish is blued unless otherwise noted. Bruno, thanks very much for your contributions, they are much appreciated. I have added the 1905s to the list (the Babies will be another project).
I have assumed that, given the serial numbers, the manual safeties on all three of the 1905s are of the 2nd style - can you confirm this? It is interesting to note that over 900,000 guns had been made by the year 1929, judging by the proof on pistol no.
914546 - leaving more than a decade to produce the remaining 170,000 or so. I find the numbers astounding. Imagine the hours of machine time that it would take - especially in those days - to produce the components for nine hundred thousand pistols, particularly the complex machining for the slides and frames. Even distributed over the course of about 25 years, it staggers the mind. And that's only for this particular model. Something else caught my attention when organizing this data: I had long heard that serial numbers for this model continued above 1,100,000 in limited post-WWII production. Until I compiled this list, however, I didn't realize that apparently I don't even have a single serial number higher than the 1,084,000 range.
Vanderlinden reports a highest known serial of 1,311,256 (albeit with 'large gaps' in the post-war serialization). I am very interested in post-WWII production of this model and would be most interested to hear of any reports of very high serial numbers that might help narrow down the ranges in which these post-war guns were numbered. Thank you Joe! Can you confirm that your pistol has no manual safety lever and has a plain (smooth-sided, non-flanged) trigger? Some of you may have noted the remarkable anomaly of pistol no. 81975, which is listed as having a 2nd style manual safety - remarkable because this pistol is more than 50,000 numbers below the next earliest pistol with a manual safety (no.
133193, reported by Vanderlinden). Though I was unable to communicate with the gun's owner, I have several photos of the pistol and while they are not of the highest quality, after scrutinizing them I am fairly certain that the serial number was not digitally altered or 'photoshopped' for privacy reasons as some sellers are in the habit of doing (note that all it would take is a '1' before the serial number and the gun would fall neatly into the proper range for a plain trigger, 2nd style safety variation). The pistol looks completely right and unaltered, with even, consistent wear.
The slide legend is sans serif as one would expect for the serial range. Bruno, thanks for the additional images. It is always good to see positive confirmation of the features.
I asked for the post not to be stickied simply because I find it annoying when there get to be so many stickies at the top of the forum that you have to scroll an entire page to get down to the latest threads. Just a pet peeve of mine. Also, I believe that most people don't pay much attention to stickies, notwithstanding their position at the head of the page.
I think most people just scroll past them without reading them until they get to the threads.