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"GERMANY" — the export stamp
Export, import and country-of-origin stamps · Late 19th century to the present.
What it looks like
The single word GERMANY, usually on the frame or the barrel, often in small plain letters with no crown, eagle or number.
Where it is on the gun
Frame, barrel, sometimes the slide.
Date range
Late 19th century to the present.
What it tells you
What this mark authorises you to say
The gun crossed a border as German goods. Export stamps record trade, and on a gun with no other German proof marks they are the reason an American collector finds the word GERMANY on an otherwise unmarked arm. They are also, historically, a legal requirement of the importing country rather than of Germany.
What it does not tell you
What this mark does NOT say
It is not a proof mark, not a maker’s name, and not a place of manufacture. This is the central error the mark invites: "GERMANY" means the gun was exported from Germany, and the mark was often applied by the importer. A gun marked GERMANY may have been made anywhere in the German trade, and the stamp tells you nothing about where or when.
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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National Rifle Association — "Proof Marks" (reference catalogue)
referenceA museum, academic, or published reference catalogue.
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German Gun Collectors Association — "A Proof Mark Primer 1891-1939", by Steve Meyer
collectorAn established specialist archive or collectors' society.
Related on this site
Makers whose guns carry marks like this:
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 export, import and country-of-origin stamps
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.