It's great to be here folks.
Maybe most of you already know of the M9 Pat Pending variations. The book American Gladius started the Gen 1-4 idea, but when the author discovered another font variation in the Pat Pending (gen 4) M9, he called it gen 5. That was not a good idea since the previous generations were in chronological order. The Pat Pending, gen 4 variations have not been categorized as to which variation came first. Who would know at this point in time which should be gen 5,6,7,8 etc.? We as collectors needed a method for identifying the differences.
The method (as far as I know, sorry if I'm wrong) comes from NumberOneGi, Howard. It involves the alignment of the letters in PHROBIS, and the letters in USA, (or in one case U in USA lines up with the T in PAT.) The second identifying feature is the type font of the "O" in "PHROBIS. There is a "flat-sided O", and an "OVAL O". The third identifying feature is whether the USA is a wide font or narrow font.
So, here it goes.
This is the U/T variation where the U and T line up and it has a flat side O and wide USA. The notation is, U/T, flat side O, wide USA
The second variation is a I/A, Oval O, Narrow font USA
The third variation is B/S, oval O with wide USA. With this variation, it looks like the U and T are also lined up. Unlike the UT variation above, this variation has the B and S lined up. I suppose you could call it U/T,B/S, oval O, with wide USA.
The fourth variation is the B/S, oval O, Narrow font USA
The fifth variation is B/S, flat side O, wide font USA
The method is not perfect, but it's effective.
Hope that helps in identifying the Gen 4 M9s. Note, I have not found a U/T with an Oval O.
Marv