Beretta 1934 in 32 cal.

[robert]

Picked up this weekend, a Beretta 1935 in the 409 6XX range. On the slide it says 1915 - 1919 - Mod. 1934. It is what I would consider a commercial gun, with the shield, PSF and a date 1935 in an oval cornered rectangle, on the rear tang.

No mention of Mod. 1935, tho. Is this normal for 1935s?

I have been collecting and studying Berettas for 30 years and never actually seen a 1934 in 380 or 32 either. I am guessing this is #A - an early one in the first 1000 1935s, or #B - all the 1935s are dated 1934 on slide or #C this is an anomaly with some sort of left over 1931/34 transitional slide or #D an actual 1934 beretta only in 32, perhaps a commercial special order 1934?

Amazingly it is in rather nice shape. Also what would the holster look like for this?

[kanister]

Your gun is neither a 1934 nor a 1935.
This range of guns (s/n 409.xxx) is the so called "transitionals", a group of guns that came from the Model 1932 and went to the mod. 1934 on .380 (9 corto) and to the Model 1935 on .320 (7,65 Browning).
First Model 1935 had the s/n 415.000 and the firsts Model 1934 had the s/n 500.000.

[buckle1]

I have a 1934 Beretta in .380/9mmCorto/9mm Scurt. It is dated 1941. It is a scarce Romanian contract pistol in the 22xxx range.

Bill

[kanister]

Your gun is one of the about 40.000 of the Romanian contract sold in 1941 from Beretta to Romania. They were in the s/n 1 to 41000
They are very common because on the '90 many of them were sold to Western dealers.

[buckle1]

Thanks for then info but I need to tell you they may be common in Italy but I have only seen 6 in all my years of collecting in the States.

Bill

[kanister]

In Italy the Romanian contract Berettas are scarce because when the Romanian government sold them the guns in 9mm were still forbidden.
Today the 9 corto or 9 short or .380 is allowed but the 9 long or 9 para or 9 Luger is not.