An almost identical plated Model 27 was brought back from the ETO by an uncle who removed the hammer spring (to keep my dad and another brother from having an accident with it), wrapped it in a piece of cloth and stuck it away in a dresser drawer. He'd seen enough guns to last him a lifetime, I guess, because it sat there for over 25 years. I was given custody of the pistol by my grandmother, returning it to said uncle shortly before he passed away in the '90's. Where it eventually ended up, I do not know.
The differences between the specimen you show and the one I had are as follows: there were no markings stamped on the top of the slide, the left side of the slide was stamped "fnh Pistole Modell 27 Kal. 7.65", no serial number was stamped on the sideplate, and the magazine catch was made from a metal strip with a "loop" formed at the bottom. It also had a manufacturing flaw in the barrel: a small "bulge" in one of the grooves.
The chipped lower front corners of the plastic grip sure looked familiar! I understand that this was particularly problematic with the German-issue examples. Nonetheless, Roy F. Dunlap's interesting and entertaining book "Ordnance Went Up Front" mentions these grips as being "shaped perfectly to the hand," and I would agree wholeheartedly.
I doubt that my uncle had the pistol plated himself in the short time between the end of the war and putting the gun away, as it would have been out of character for him to have done so. Where and when he actually picked it up is a mystery, but as a scout in the 47th Infantry Regiment from June 1944 to VE Day - and with Army of Occupation until '46 - he had plenty of opportunities. The apocryphal family story was that the pistol was taken from a fire and/or air raid official, but this was never actually confirmed one way or another. Since he also brought back a plated fireman's dress dagger and a "gladiator"-pattern Luftschutz helmet, there may be something to the story.
The Czechs churned out a lot of these pistols, and demand never seems to go up much on them, despite the fact that they are pleasant little pistols to shoot, if not particularly accurate (in my experience). I suppose the Waffenamt marks might bring a bit more than those without, but unless the plating was known to be done while in German military or paramilitary service, plating usually knocks the value back down.
