1. Yugo Mauser M48 Rifle Serial Numbers

Thank you for the comeback. Yes I am aware of the many variations of the crest. I was just curious iif one was less used than the other. Dosch 3d food chain. EdOf the two you showed I think about even in what I find at least from the perspective of large Vs. Early/more crude.I havnt noticed one to be less or more common.the least common M48 crest is the M-48 (M48 with hyphen) The smaller cruder crests follow the M24/47 in that they appear unique and handmade while the later (IMO) large crests seem much more standardized.

Take a look at the stickies list. There is a thread there on Yugoslav Communist Mauser crests. We have a study going. I haven't worked on it lately, unfortunately. So far, we have no hard data or conclusions but a pretty good collection of them. Let me preface the following by saying that you'll often see the word 'guess' used.

I mean that literally. I have few facts and little hard data to go on.

All of the stamps were hand made and vary according to the skills and maybe whims of the maker(source, Branko). There are some crests that are very simplistic or crude and are believed to be among the first made when they were just beginning to recover from the war. As they got better organized, it is likely they were able to find those more able to produce the quality desired. While the individual crests do vary considerable in fine detail, there have been observed some broader commonalities; One: the cruder, more simplistic crests. There are very few of these, perhaps only two variations, typically elongated but I do have one (image of the crest, that is) that is of the circular design (see below detail #3). Other details as noted above. These crests are identified (so far) on TRZ5, & TR137 reworked rifles- both 24/47 & M98.

My guess here is that one individual made two stamps and that these two shops were in close proximity to each other. Just a guess and the tools could have been made somewhere else but at about the same time and then sent to the two shops. Lots of room to exercise the imagination here. Two: There's a small, very finely made crest from Kragujevac. It was no doubt their first as it is the only crest noted (as far as I'm aware) on 3ABOD 44 M24/47s and some PRED44s Then a variety of other crest designs appear on later PRED44 rifles. I have also matched this crest, one specific tool, to a Rad 145 rifle. No idea what it might mean.

My guess would be that an early Kragujevac rifle got reworked later at RAD145. Three: ovoid vs circular. Individual details may vary w/in the framework of these two traits but the form is consistent in each. One, and this is typical to the earlier crude crests. as well as finer 'later' crests, is that the outline of the crests are ovoid or egg shaped tapering to a closer radius at the top compared to the bottom and longer than wide. The other style, the crests appear squatter, very circular in outline.

We have no data, no facts but, there are a couple possibilities that occur to me to explain this. First of all, that the majority of these crests were made ultimately by very few men, (perhaps even only 2?) or shops and we are seeing their interpretations of the crest.

Another, that somebody in government made a printout, drawing, &tc that was given out to the engravers contracted and at some point, a second drawing was made that differed from the first, intentionally or accidentally is anybody's guess. These are my two best guesses. I welcome other hypotheses.

One more thing, off the top of my head, I believe the circular version is the only crest I have seen on 24/52C, though there's usually an exception to anything Yugoslav.allowing for the one exception mentioned in item one above. There's one other detail that has been observed likely a result of confusion on the tool maker's part. Where the banner ends cross at the bottom of the crest, some are folded right over left and then others just opposite. I do not recall at the moment which is the most prevalent. There are also variations in the markings, such as TRZ-dot-5 and TRZ-hyphen-5 and script vs block font, and this is within one shop!

So that's another topic. Now to answer your question specifically; shop codes are beginning to influence price but, I am not aware of any particular influence on price by the crests.

The only possible exception might be the cruder crests as these are more unique and noted as being far fewer in number. There you have it. This is all I can pull off the top of my head for what I have observed so far. Here's a few pics to demonstrate some things I referred to. From left, a typical crude TRZ 5 crest; 2nd- same crest on two shop rifles; 3rd- Three very similar crests. Obviously made from one pattern.

Yugo Mauser M48 Rifle Serial Numbers

Maybe made by the same hand??? 4th & 5th- circular crest compared to an ovoid; 6th- another case of same tool crest on two different shop rifles. The one on the right is the first Kragujevac noted from 3ABOD 44 rifles. If you look at these, you will note the variations in the banner ends crossover as described above.