| M-1911 Production Dates |
In this area you can find some information related to collecting M-1911s or M-1911A1s. This site is not a collector's reference, so at the bottom of this page, you will find links to sites which specialize on this topic. Here, you will find some initial material to get you started.
A question that I've been asked for, several times in the past, concerns the year a particular pistol was manufactured. That information was unavailable to me, until pretty recently, when I manage to find someone who had it in hand, and was willing to share it with the rest of us. If someone out there, has similar information for other brands, like Springfield, Ithaca, Savage or whatever, and he is willing to share it with the rest of the world, please e-mail me. Click here if you want to see the most usual inspector marks found on the M-1911s and M-1911 A1 pistols.
1. Colt Commercial Models 1912-1978
2. Military Models by Various Manufacturers 1912-1945
3. Colt .38 Super Models 1972-1977
5. Colt Ace Models .22 LR 1931-1947
6. Colt Service Ace Models .22 LR 1935-1945
7. Colt .22 LR - .45 ACP Conversion Kits 1938-1946
8. Colt .45 ACP -.22 LR Conversion Kits 1938-1941
All of the above information was kindly contributed by Scott Tew (e-mail at tew@earthlink.net). Scott has information about several other manufacturers and models, so if you are interested at finding out the date your gun was produced, you can e-mail him. Thanks Scott, much appreciated.
You can read some additional Production Information at "The Sight 1911A1" (an excellent resource on the M-1911).
Another page with manufacturing dates information, can be found in the Oliver de Gravelle's Model 1911A1 Page (this will open a new browser window, close it to return here). This site has also Ithaca Shipping Records.
And another page with manufacturing dates information, can be found in the Rayvigator M- 1911 Page (this will open a new browser window, close it to return here). This site has also military Colt current values. Pay special attention to the price carried by the guns made by North American (anything from 7,000$ up to 20,000$, but they only made about 100 of them).
If you are also interested in finding out who made a War time M-1911 or M-1911A1, click here for some information I found.
Below, you will find some links which provide infromation to those interested in collecting (and thus properly identifying) an M-1911 or an M-1911A1. The people who maintain those pages, have done an outstanding job, at providing solid, usable information, on how to identify a pistol. Please visit these sites for all your collectors questions (all links will open a new browser window. Close it to return here) :