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Modern German proof — eagle over N
German proof marks · Modern arms, post-1945 to today.
What it looks like
An eagle with a capital N beneath it, often with the antler device of the Ulm proof house.
Where it is on the gun
Barrel and frame.
Date range
Modern arms, post-1945 to today.
What it tells you
What this mark authorises you to say
The current German definitive smokeless-powder proof, applied by the Beschussamt at Ulm and the other German proof houses. The antler figure identifies the Ulm house specifically, so the pair of devices locates and certifies the gun in one glance.
What it does not tell you
What this mark does NOT say
It is not the same mark as the pre-1945 German crown/N, and the two are easy to conflate. Crown/N is an inter-war mark on an inter-war gun; eagle/N is the modern German house style operating under C.I.P. rules. Reading a modern eagle/N as a wartime stamp produces a fifty-year error.
Where the sources are uncertain
The eagle device appears in several forms across the German houses and across the century. Distinguishing the Ulm antler from superficially similar devices is a job for a good photograph and a specialist, not a description.
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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C.I.P. — Commission Internationale Permanente, members and convention
officialA national proof house, a governing body, or the manufacturer itself.
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Proof marks of Germany 1890-1945
collectorAn established specialist archive or collectors' society.
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 german proof marks
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.