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Belgian inspector’s letter
Belgian (Liège) proof marks · 1853-1877 in one form, 1877 to today in another.
What it looks like
A single capital letter, frequently under a crown or beside a small device. Any letter of the alphabet may appear.
Where it is on the gun
Barrel and frame.
Date range
1853-1877 in one form, 1877 to today in another.
What it tells you
What this mark authorises you to say
It identifies the individual proof-house inspector who passed the arm — the same principle as the Italian Capo tecnico ovals and the British viewer’s letters. Where it can be resolved it narrows a date more precisely than the proof marks do.
What it does not tell you
What this mark does NOT say
It is the least reliable mark on the gun, and this is stated loudly rather than quietly: the Belgian inspectors’ list was never published and remains secret, so any published attribution is an inference. Do not date a Belgian gun on an inspector’s letter alone.
Where the sources are uncertain
The compiled inspector lists circulate widely and contradict each other. One authoritative source describes the Belgian inspector’s mark flatly as "still a secret" and its own list as "uncertain". Treat every letter-to-name attribution as a hypothesis.
Sources for this page
Every claim above is attributed. The class of source is shown with each one, because a national proof house and an anonymous forum table are not the same evidence — and on proof marks the difference matters.
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Belgian proof marks
collectorAn established specialist archive or collectors' society.
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Belgian proof marks — the inspector list, published by its own compiler as "uncertain" and describing the underlying data as "still a secret"
contestedPublications disagree, or no published source explains the mark.
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Belgian Proof Marks (compiled from damascus-barrels.com)
referenceA museum, academic, or published reference catalogue.
Reading marks to identify and date a gun
Proof marks name the test and the era. The serial number, where a maker published a browsable chart, can name the year. The lookup cites the threshold behind every result.
Open the serial number lookupOther belgian (liège) proof marks
Mark descriptions observed and verified 2026-10-14. Proof marks are stamped by hand on guns up to a century old; a photographed stamp and a description in a book are not the same evidence. If a mark on your gun does not match anything here, that is a real answer — see the notes on unidentified marks.