I’ve got a few friends over in Austria who are a rare breed of hardcore collectors. Ironically enough, most of them aren’t even interested in Glock pistols and are instead after old Soviet, British, Italian, and even American collector firearms.
One such friend, Sebastian, has a notable “hater” of Glocks but has somehow found himself the proud owner of an extremely rare factory-engraved Generation 2 Glock 19. According to Sebastian, he acquired this Glock in a private transfer through some contacts he had made through the industry, but it also seems that there was a heavy amount of luck involved in this purchase as well.
He texted me the below just a few days ago. Here’s what Sebastian selectively told me about the rare Glock he found in his hands:
The Glock 19 ABG000 is a hand-engraved firearm which, to my knowledge, was produced on the personal instruction of Mr. Gaston Glock, with the engraving being carried out in-house at the factory. Even at that time, the slides were already heat-treated, making subsequent engraving impossible. The pistols were engraved, hardened, and then proof-fired.
The barrel marking “BDK” indicates the proof date: “B” stands for April, “D” for 9, and “K” for 2, meaning the firearm underwent official proofing in April 1992. The condition of the pistol is essentially as-new; it is highly likely that only a few rounds were ever fired through it during the mandatory proofing. I have neither lubricated nor cleaned the pistol; it remains exactly as I received it. The original owner probably never even unpacked it after acquiring it.
Through my firearms trade and specialization in collector’s pieces, I came across this pistol somewhat by chance. However, a close friend who worked at Glock at the time was even able to recall this specific firearm. He remembered wondering back then about the third letter “G” in the serial number and was told it stood for “Gaston.” As for the meaning of “AB,” he himself was no longer certain. Throughout his career, he only saw a handful of such pistols—fewer than ten, he believed—and he is sure they were produced solely on the personal order of Gaston Glock himself.
No information was passed down regarding the original owner, but it can be assumed that this firearm was a rare personal gift to a high-ranking individual.
I surmise that Sebastian knows more than he’s telling me, and when I’m reading between the lines, I would assume this was a firearm that was likely given to a politician or maybe even a high-ranking military official. Industry gifts like this are common in the firearms world, and we’ve seen our fair share of this type of activity over here in the States.
What makes this particular Glock specimen so weird is that it’s completely divorced from even some of the rare engineering-grade one-offs that Glock approved to go out its doors that had odd serial numbers – I’m of course referring to serial “ABXXX” of which there are about ten. These 10 unique pistols feature different coatings on the outside, the internals, and also lack a dust cover serial number, despite being part of the Generation 2 family like Sebastian’s pistol is. However, unlike the others, these 10 were all very utilitarian-looking instead of engraved.
Like the very rare 30-pistol ELP-prefix series, the ABG000 is engraved, but lacks the gold inlay that was offered on the ELP pistols. I assume this makes ABG000 a one-of-a-kind engraving and would indicate to me that, as Sebastian says, this was truly made on the direct orders of Gastdon himself rather than part of a marketing stunt or limited production series. If others exist, there is currently no information I have access to out there to prove it. That fact not only makes the gun rare, but it likely means that whatever the favor was that earned the original recipient this gift, it was a big one. I’d love to hear your guy’s speculation on this one down in the comments.
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