Home / Proof Marks / Crown over N

Crown over N

German proof marks · Introduced 1912, in use until 1939.
What it looks like
A crown with a capital N beneath it, usually on the barrel.
Where it is on the gun
Barrel.
Date range
Introduced 1912, in use until 1939.

What it tells you

What this mark authorises you to say

Nitro proof — the gun was proved for smokeless powder. Introduced in 1912 to replace the older black-powder mark for nitro arms, it was the German equivalent of the British crown/NP, and it is the mark that tells you a hundred-year-old gun was built for modern propellant.

What it does not tell you

What this mark does NOT say

It does not certify the gun for any modern load. Proof pressures and cartridges have changed in the century since, and the proof was applied to the gun as it left the factory, not as it stands now.

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.

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 lookup

Other german 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.