The History and Value of Sacm 1935a Serial Number Year Pistols

The following year the decision was made to select the Petter design as the winner, and SACM as the company to manufacture the sidearm which was now designated the Mle 1935A. Although a number of the foreign entries had done well, there was political pressure to award the military contract to a French company, which no doubt helped SACMs cause. But even without such efforts the 1935A was able to stand on its own merits.

Model 1935A serial numbers are laid out in blocks of 10,000 using an alphanumeric sequence starting with Axxxx and ending mid-way through Ixxxx. Fortunately, the Heereswaffenamt authorities, as they had in other cases, simply continued the serial numbers starting with B701. Thus, it is fairly straight forward to date these sidearms.

Sacm 1935a Serial Number Year

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Being a military pistol, it has pretty straightforward markings. MODELE (oddly, not MODÈLE) 1935 S, CAL. 7,65 L, and the serial number. The "MAC" prefix on this gun's serial number means that it was built at Saint-Etienne's sister arsenal, Manufacture d'Armes de Châtellerault. MAC serial numbers for these guns ran in 10,000-gun blocks with a letter prefix, so the first 10,000 guns were serial numbers A1 through A10000, then the 10,001st one was B1, and so on. According to the table in Medlin and Doane's The French 1935 Pistols: A Concise History, which has been my main reference for this article, the serial number on this specimen indicates that it was made in 1952. The "M1" stamp indicates a modification to the design which was made by MAC when they started producing these pistols just after World War II, which we'll get into in a moment. First, let's have a look at the other side of the gun.

Manufactured in 1941 under the German occupation. The left side of the frame is marked with the "eagle/WaA215" acceptance mark between the model and serial number stamps. Includes a tan leather holster. 2ff7e9595c