DRP (Deutsche Reichspost) PPK Rundown, Brief History, and How to Spot a Fake

DRP Marked PPKs

Hey, guys, and welcome to another of our educational videos we’re going to be talking about another variation of PPs and PPKs. Now, if you’ve been watching, I actually call it a book, a video book, but on YouTube, they call it a playlist. I’m going to have about 30 or more chapters just going over all of the variations. Also, there’ll be a summary sheet for each chapter. Today, if you look at our summary sheet, you’re going to see that we’re going to be talking about DRP Marked PPKs.

Early Feral Dog Repellent?

They only came in PPK. There are no DRP PPs. There are only two variations that make this video a lot easier. So this will be a quickie. First of all, DRP stands for Deutsche (German )ReichsPost or Postal Inspector. Now, I’d like to tell you that they gave these out to mail carriers, the shoot, the dogs that chased them. But that would not be true, nor would it be humane. So they did not use these to shoot dogs.

Even Postal Carriers today Sure as Heck Carry Guns

But in fact, just like we have today, I was just telling Randy that early on in our legacy carrier, we lost the package because it contained guns. They sent a postal inspector here, and he was carrying a Glock. So our postal inspectors do carry guns when they think it’s necessary. And I’m sure in the German Republic, they had postal inspectors who carried guns. Now, there’s not very many of these made.

How Many of the DRPs Were Made?

I’m estimating there are only about a thousand of these that were ever made. It’s really simple variation one has the period at the end of the D R P, and this is a solid block. Variation one is found from serial number about 905-918. So there’s a solid range there. Now you might say, well, that’s more than a thousand numbers. But bear in mind, when they made the PPs and PPKs, there was overlap in the serial numbers.

So in that range, there’s PPs and PPKs, but there’s a solid block of PPKs that we’re DRP made with the period. The DRP without the period came a little bit later. And these are all in about the nineteen thirty-five nineteen thirty-six era. So Hitler has come to power, but the German economy is just ramping up. He’s making a lot of changes. They’re not at war yet. And actually, their economy is beginning to boom.

Only Around 45 of these Guns Known

So it was during that time period that they issued these guns to the postal service. Again, there’s only about forty-five of these known. There’s about thirty-five of the earlier variation known. Probably only a thousand that were ever made. So they’re pretty rare gun. These guns were also issued with holsters. And I have one here. Now know something is interesting about this holster. We’ll see if any you guys can guess it.

DRP Holsters: Rarer than the Gun Itself?

First of all, they were all Akah made holsters. You can see the Akah marked, and then they would have an ink stamp inside that said DRP and then an abbreviation of the town. I’ve seen different towns, but they are ink stamped DRP. I’ve seen them in brown, and I’ve seen them in black. Very hard to find. Actually, the holsters are harder to find than the gun because obviously, the whole suits don’t hold up as well. But anything that you notice about this holster, that seems odd.

Something off with the DRP Holsters?

Here’s a clue. Every one of the holsters I’ve ever seen is a PP holster. So what we have to conclude again, I talk to other collectors, we do a lot of forensics things like why did that happen? I’ve never talked to a guy who actually worked in the factory. But the story that I heard is they ordered PPK holsters, and the Akah factory mistakenly sent a thousand of them. They sent it to the wrong holster. They sent the PP.

But rather than throwing them away, they said, no big deal. We’ll just keep it. Now The PP holster is about an inch longer. And this clearly is a PP holster with a PPK. And the reason I say that with a good amount of confidence is I’ve seen probably six or seven original DRP holsters. Every one of them was PP, and I just had a guy call me. This would make me think of doing the video. A collector friend called me and said, hey, I got a DRP, and it comes with the DRP holster. The only problem is it comes in PP. Is this possible? Entirely possible. In fact, I’d say it should come in a PP holster. So interesting, the Germans did make mistakes now because he’s come in a solid block. I would just want to go over one other piece of information that is important for your collectors. You’ll notice the DRP is blued over, which means these were marked in the factory before they were blued.

How to Spot a Fake DRP?

If they are engraved, these are also stamped in there. If they’re engraved on top of the blue, that means somebody is trying to fake the marking. It’s not that hard. If you look at the marking, it’s pretty simple. Any engraver could make that pretty easily. So it should be stamped, not engraved. It should be under the finish. Not over the finish. And one thing that’s confusing, a lot of collectors like to put that little white wax pencil in there to accentuate the marking.

So when that white stuff is in there, you can’t see whether or not it’s blued over. So I often will take a little toothbrush with some oil on it, get the little white stuff out just to make sure it’s real. And another caution would be I got a DRP in the 709 range. Well, we already know that they all came in the nine hundred thousand range or a solid block 1 in the 709 range. Is that possible?

I think not. I would never tell somebody. Yeah, your gun is definitely fake unless I know is definitely fake. But if the marking looks good and it’s out of the range, I  personally avoid it. Now if I tell you the range goes from nine fifty-five eight and you find one that’s nine fifty-five nine. That doesn’t mean it’s necessarily fake. It just means we might need to extend the range.

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We love to hear from you. We’d love to hear from you, your serial numbers. We’re trying to gather the largest database on this on these guns. All the records from the factory were destroyed, but we can create as much as possible so we can give you accurate information. Thanks for watching. Make sure you like and subscribe and stay in touch.

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