I bought his book from him at the SOS. Very nice guy.  Rest in Peace.

I have been collecting for several decades and had the same question myself.  I looked it up a few month ago.  Collectors have sometimes considered it an "acceptance" stamp proving that the piece of equipment had passed the final inspection....ready for service.  It is an ordnance mark and is often found on uniforms, hats and the like of those involved with the US ARMY ORDNANCE CORPS.  in modern times, i.e. 20th century, the symbol found on rifles and bayonets simply represents (as stated on google)  " the Corps' historical and ongoing role in the development, maintenance, and supply of military weapons and ammunition."  The US army's first use was in 1832. Marv

I had thought about that. There doesn’t appear to be any marks where a bayonet lug had been taken off.

Another possibility is that it did receive the post-war upgrades and was put into a M2 stock, then someone got it and "restored" it to its original configuration.  Not hard to do, and a correct stock may have been more than the person who "restored" it wanted to spend at the moment.

USAF / Far East Air Force "1st 3 Club". Japanese-made "Longines" in original cellophane and box.

interesting! cool that they had buggys there too  

This particular barn was in really good condition, it was used to store early horse drawn buggies that the gentleman had collected and restored his whole life. I almost bought a buggy but my wife would have hit me over the head with a frying pan.

R.I.P.

Sorry to hear. Rest in peace Eric. 

I have been collecting 19th and 20th century newspapers since I was a kid (35 years I think). I use to ride my bike to auctions around the town I lived in by myself starting around the age of 10. I was quite the site from the perspective of the old timers and learned a lot from them. Nobody was interested in old newspapers except for this kid because if I had a dollar bill I could win the bid and haul home some stuff. I have been preserving the pages that I believe to be the most relevant to history. Ephemera is weird because its probably the most historically relevant but most historically overlooked because it's just paper. I hope to share some of the projects when they have been completed. Here is one.