Home / Proof Marks / German date mark (e.g. "730")

German date mark (e.g. "730")

German proof marks · Permitted from 1912, compulsory from 1922, to 1939.
What it looks like
Three or four digits, sometimes written 7.30 or 7/30, usually near the proof marks.
Where it is on the gun
Barrel flat or breech.
Date range
Permitted from 1912, compulsory from 1922, to 1939.

What it tells you

What this mark authorises you to say

The proof date. The digits are month and year: 730 is July 1930, and 7/30 is the same thing written differently. This is the only mark in the German system that gives the year outright, which makes it worth hunting for on a gun with worn crowns.

What it does not tell you

What this mark does NOT say

It is the year of proof, not of manufacture. A gun can be built in 1927 and proved in 1930, and on a re-proofed gun the mark records the later date. Nor was the stamp a legal requirement before 1922, so a missing date mark does not mean a pre-1922 gun.

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.

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.