OLD COLT: WE PROVIDE THE PUBLIC WITH AN ONLINE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCE FOR OLD COLT GUNS.
Colt had an agreement with Fabrique Nationale d' Armes de Guerre of Herstal, Belgium not to sell it's Browning designed pocket pistols in most of Europe. Although given the demand it became necessary for Colt to supply the Belgian government with a large quantity of these Colt 1903's.
These pistols are able to be indicated by serial number and they were stamped with a letter "A" inside of a diamond-shaped box. They were all stamped on the left side of the frame just behind the serial number. Presumably this was the Belgian government acceptance mark.
The majority of these Belgian contract pistols were shipped in cardboard boxes, but 2,372 of them were in tin shipping boxes.
While this particular pistol has the "A" inside of the diamond shaped box, the factory letter it was shipped to the Tufts-Lyons Arms Company in Los Angeles, CA on December 18th 1916. This would have been one of the few pistols that did not ship to Belgium and is one of the few factory overruns.
