As soon as mine get here I'll weigh them and post the weights here . As I said the ink stamps are on topside of top cymbal and bottomside of bottom cymbal . This was standard procedure in the 60's I presume . Also , ink logos are straight not curved . Check my mini pics posted earlier .
Yes, yours with the top ink have changed the definition of the 1st gen to include the ink on top. For comparison, mine only have the ink on the bottom hat and are 975g over 1300g (seen as at the heavier end of the range given they show 1st gen ink). But no ink on the top. If it was ever there it is long gone by cleaning:
[img]http://black.net.nz/cym2014/60sNB-top-lathing.jpg[/img]
[img]http://black.net.nz/cym2014/60sNB-bot-lathing.jpg[/img]
I have no idea of having the top stamped or not represents
[list]differential survival (cleaning removes it)
[*]chronology (top stamping happened from 1968 on)
[*]regional variants (USA vs International markets)
[*]something else[/list]
but we'll see what we see as more evidence comes to light.
Meanwhile, for completeness...
The 3rd gen ink is like this (on the outside of both cymbals now) with the solid ink Zildjian on both top and bottom sides of each cymbal. The model is at 12 o'clock and includes the size under the model:
[img]http://black.net.nz/cym2014/NewBeats80s.jpg[/img]
This ink change isn't unique to New Beats, it's just the general progression of ink in the A series. From here on thees are the changes I know about...
Adding Avedis in smaller letters just above and to the left of the Zildjian (4th)
[img]http://black.net.nz/cym2014/Avedis-ink-only.jpg[/img]
Adding a script A up to the left of the model (5th)
[img]http://black.net.nz/cym2014/NB-before-laser.jpg[/img]
to get the ink style which lasted until the laser serials come in and make things easier to date (1994). Then the final change in 2013 saw Avedis removed from above the Zildjian, and the cursive A get bigger plus the model ink fonts changed and moved around (6th):
[img]http://black.net.nz/cym2014/NB-2013.jpg[/img]
I haven't dated all of these ink changes properly yet, but I'm slowly working on it because there doesn't seem to be anything out there on the web which does.
Note that these generations or eras are just names I've stuck on them for the time being. They are subject to change as new info comes to hand.