|
THE CARTRIDGE COLLECTOR'S EXCHANGE |
| Contents
Cartridge
Lists
Prior Picture Pages:
Links to Other Sites
Cartridge Collectors Organizations:
Auctions:
Books:
Other Collector's Sites:
|
Home of the Old Ammo Guy's Virtual
Cartridge Trading Table
Picture Page August 2010
Another opportunity to steam off a label...
I recently picked up a 70 or so boxes of ammunition, most of it fairly new shooting stock, but included were about 20 older boxes, among which were a couple of these two piece, half-split boxes of .38 Colt automatic cartridges. This particular label style was introduced around 1919, just prior to the company making the switch to one piece boxes in 1920. The color scheme on these boxes varies based on the type of powder used. Blue inside the oval with orange surrounding, as on this box, indicates a smokeless load, whereas orange inside the oval with blue surrounding would indicate a black powder or Lesmok load. Both boxes were in poor condition, with dirty, mildewed, flaked labels,
and split edges, the result of having been stored in a damp environment.
Because portions of the labels were missing, it was obvious that these boxes
had been relabeled when they were packed. The more I looked at those
. . An unusual? box of 7.65 Browning pistol cartridges ....
. . . . . . . . . .
|
yellow
and red under-labels peeking through the holes in the top label, the more
obvious it became to me that I needed to do a little steaming on one of the
boxes to fully expose the hidden label. These are always fun projects, as
you never really know just what you will find underneath. The results are usually
quite striking, as those areas of the under-label that were unexposed tend
to retain all of the color that they had when they were new. 
Here's
the label that had been covered over on the box shown just above. The damage
at the bottom and the wear to the other three edges are the result of the
top label having flaked off exposing the lower label to the ravages of time.
The stains on the left resulted from mildew that managed to work its way
under the edges of the top label. This yellow and red label was used from
about 1910 to 1919.
While the box of Fabrique Nationale cartridges shown here is in a rather common caliber, 7.65
Browning or .32 ACP, I don't recall ever seeing a cartridge box that has
John Moses Browning's signature on it. This 'La Signature' box format is
probably more common than my experience has shown, and perhaps was produced
to commemorate the firearms inventor's death in 1926. 
The headstamp is F
N with a five point star. The cartridges are loaded with a heavily-crimped-in nickel full metal jacket
bullet and a rounded brass primer. The box is of one piece construction with
a flip open top; a Browning Model 1910 pistol is illustrated on the side
sealing label. First produced in 1912, the pistol was
quite popular; FN had produced in excess of a million of this model by 1935.
