Colt M1911 No. 90
Early 1912 Production
No. 90 was one of 29 pistols assembled by Colt's on Jan. 8, 1912 and
delivered to the Commanding Officer at Springfield Armory on Jan 19, 1912.
Only 50 pistols (serial no.'s 51-100) were included in this early 2nd ship-
ment.
The early Colt M1911's to serial no. 2400 are notable for a bright, mirror-
like, blue-black, highly polished finish, a result of Colt's oven bluing
process. However, the highly reflective finish, which also scratched and
wore easily, was considered impractical for combat, and on Jan. 25, 1912
Ordnance requested change to a duller, less reflective color (ref. Clawson).
The mirrorlike finish is highlighted by fireblue small components (including
the trigger, slide stop, thumb safety, hammer, magazine catch, rear site,
etc.), another hallmark of pistols up to serial no. 2400 (ref. Clawson).
Other notable features include placement of the serial no. on the right side
of the receiver forward of the slide stop insert, vertically oriented WGP
cartouche, large UNITED STATES PROPERTY stamp, hand-checkered slide stop and
thumb safety, Type 1 dimpled magazine catch, and the Type 3 early exposed base
lanyard loop magazine.
Early 2-digit M1911's are among the rarest of the rare, and they are highly
sought and coveted by collectors.
Note: No. 90 is featured on pg. 179 of Edward Scott Meadows' reference text-
book U.S. Military Automatic Pistols.
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