So do I, especially when things aren`t what they appear.

Maybe this is the same Arabic word, so it`s spelled the same with a different die.

Drumaholic has a plan B, C and so on. Lathing, bell, composition, taste,...Maybe we explore other routes ?

I still say it looks like the first E more than the K There`s much more to a K stamp. I see no indication of the moon or English section on the OP cymbal.

I would have gone into the lathing, bell morphology, hammering style, etc. except that I don't know enough about these early ones. Once you get to the 1950s I believe I can tell the difference between Italian and Istanbul with reasonable reliability. But not further back. Not my area of interest. I only got into this thread because I knew to search on "ersatz k" to find that comparison Drumaholic made.

Anyway...from what little I know, the earliest K Con stamps didn't have the bottom English portion and didn't have the crescent moon and star. That came later. But given we are pretty sure the pieces of the stamp were in fact separate pieces and applied separately (hence Drumaholic's distinction of Newer vs Older New Stamp based on the distance between the Arabic and the English portions) who's to say that some of the earliest K Con stamps lack the lower English portion because it was just left off that particular example? Same issue with the crescent moon and star and when that first appeared. If somebody with a large sample of these stamps were to reveal their materials and analysis we might know...

Meanwhile here's an example of a relatively simple top portion which does have the K Zildjian & Cie there, but nothing below that was pressed in well enough to be legible. And no hint of the crescent moon and star that I can see.

[img]http://black.net.nz/cym2016/15-KCon-stamp.png[/img]

Looking at so much cymbal left after the trademark on that Navy cymbal, I would guess it`s not close to the edge of the cymbal.

I have an old K cons without a crescent and star.

Just stumbled upon this forum. So cool there is so much information on these old cymbals. I just purchased this and have no idea if it's an old k, but it sort of matches the ops picture. Just thought I'd throw the photos on here.

[Attachment: 111692][Attachment: 111693] [Attachment: 111694]

What size is that cymbal? Welcome to the forum, by the way.