Firearm industry powerhouse SIG SAUER recently announced that all new firearms and sound suppressors will feature a new fabrication mark that identifies the place of manufacture as Newington, NH. Previously, guns made by the company in the United States have been marked simply with “Exeter, NH.” In the future, that mark will be replaced with “Made in Newington, NH.”

For collectors of SIG products, the change indicates an increasingly reduced quantity of Exeter marked guns in the future. While that may not sound like a big deal at the moment, for some it can be. I know that I wished I still had my old SIG P220 marked with “Made in W. Germany.” With the relatively short time the company has been making sound suppressors, I imagine that the Exeter models may be desirable in the future for collectors of such things.

The marking change reflects the company’s investment in a new, state of the art manufacturing and testing plant located at Pease International Tradeport in Newington, New Hampshire. The new plant and corporate headquarters takes up 206,000 square feet and has a multi-position firing range as part of its high tech design. The size of the building reflects the fact that the company is a significant employer in the state.