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Italian arsenal inspector’s oval
Italian proof marks and date codes · Late 19th century to 1945.
What it looks like
An oval containing one or two initials, sometimes with a small royal crown above it.
Where it is on the gun
Barrel, receiver and individual parts.
Date range
Late 19th century to 1945.
What it tells you
What this mark authorises you to say
The part was examined by a named Capo tecnico — a chief technician at one of the Italian State Arsenals — for dimensions, material quality and resistance before the gun was accepted. These inspectors were personally responsible for a batch, so the oval is a real accountability mark: turani mauro at the Regia Fabbrica d’Armi Brescia checked essentially every Glisenti M1910 produced by M.B.T.
What it does not tell you
What this mark does NOT say
It is not a proof-house mark and it does not record a pressure test. Crucially, it does not give you a date you can read off — but where the inspector can be identified it narrows the window considerably, sometimes to a single production run.
Where the sources are uncertain
The same initials were used by different men across decades. The compilers of the list say this plainly: "SG in an oval on a 1918 Terni rifle will be a different person than SG in a circle on a 1898 Torino rifle". The published lists are also explicitly incomplete, and more inspectors keep appearing. Never date a gun on an inspector’s oval alone.
Sources for this page
Every claim above is attributed. The class of source is shown with each one, because a national proof house and an anonymous forum table are not the same evidence — and on proof marks the difference matters.
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Carcano Compendium — inspector codes at the Italian State Arsenals
collectorAn established specialist archive or collectors' society.
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Carcano Compendium — inspector codes, self-described by its compilers as "NOT complete by any mean", with the same initials recurring across decades
contestedPublications disagree, or no published source explains the mark.
Reading marks to identify and date a gun
Proof marks name the test and the era. The serial number, where a maker published a browsable chart, can name the year. The lookup cites the threshold behind every result.
Open the serial number lookupOther italian proof marks and date codes
Mark descriptions observed and verified 2026-10-14. Proof marks are stamped by hand on guns up to a century old; a photographed stamp and a description in a book are not the same evidence. If a mark on your gun does not match anything here, that is a real answer — see the notes on unidentified marks.