Folks retired from the army ordnance depot where these are stored tell me that there are hundreds if not thousands of much coveted 1912 to 1920 years production squirreled away for posterity….they risked their careers to carefully schedule junkers and later production guns destined for the infamous "captain crunch" shear….

In the '60s and '70s black market "lunchbox" frankenstein 1911s from this depot were common on the market in my neck of the woods…..I gave $275 for one with a 1916 frame in 1989….I sold it to collector for $900 in the early nineties….the premium price just by virtue of the frame alone being from the WW 1 era…..I cannot imagine what they would fetch today.