You did good, and it is an interesting piece of information.

But did we scare off Robyn?

Ok after more examination i have found the stamp (embedded stamp). It looks like the 70s stamp and has avedis in the stamp, ill try to get a picture of it, but it is really hard to see, i had to use a magnifing glass to get a good look. Ill see what i can do tho.

And dont worry zen...it'll take alot more then that to scare me away. :)

Cool.

See if you can tell if it says ZILDJIAN Co or ZILDJIAN CO (upper case O) as that might be a useful piece of information. I believe both were around in the (mid?) 80s, but I don't know about later.

Im trying to remember if i noticed that, also didn't realize there was a difference so probly didnt notice. I wont be home til late monday nite but will take a look then. So we are getting the year figured out...you think there is a chance we will ever know whats under all that grindage ??? Thanks for all you help and info zenstat. I do appreciate your time.

Hi Robyn, all....

Just an FYI - it was like that when I got it. It may have been a field cymbal in a previous life?

John

I know this john, no worries my friend.

ok was able to get a photo of the stamp, not a real good one but good enough we might get some where with it. look it over real good and let me know what ya'll think.

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Don't know much but it looks like the thin (zildjian letters) stamp from the 70s. I have the same.

Excellent job of getting a photo of a tricky stamp Robyn. That stamp has the big O in ZILDJIAN CO, has USA rather than U.S.A, and I'm not sure about the three dots. I'll have to look much more closely.

Does yours from the 70s have the big O in CO, vadava? If so, does it also have a hollow ink Zildjian on the bottom? Any model ink on the top? Note that there seem to be big CO vs Co, 3 dots and not, dots in U.S.A vs USA. There may be other variants as well.

Some reading: http://www.drumforum.org/index.php?/topic/38161-hollow-logo-zildjians-with-co-and-3-dots-stamp/

which I believe is mentioned here as well: http://www.drumforum.org/index.php?/topic/95918-year-zildjian-3-dot-logo-with-hollow-ink-stamp/

Note that in the second link we have hollow ink Zildjian underneath which puts it in an earlier era (1978-1982).

Alas, we are not going to pin this one down to a year or two Robyn, unless Herron Scott has well documented specimens which match when you read that thread I've linked to. We do know yours is pre laser serials (1994). We know to the decade (1983-1993) from the ink pattern but the transition time between the solid Zildjian ink on the top and having the Avedis added to that isn't very well documented (at least in my records -- somebody else may know). So we might be able to narrow the years from that.

I don't know if Drumaholic/Bill Hartrick (who created the first timeline for Avedis Zildjian cymbals) has looked into the post 70s since he seems to favor older ones. The initial timeline only gets up to the early 70s:

[ame]http://black.net.nz/cym2013/ZDatingZildjianCymbals.pdf[/ame]

But maybe Bill knows and could just tell us.

I'm far from an expert on these things but my best guess is later 80's on the stamp of the cymbal in the original post.

Here is my reason, I just came across a zildjian cymbal from a friend of mine that brought over a solid ink logo 20" ride with ink on the top and bottom. I was going to show him the difference between the pressed stamp of the hollow ink logo(which I owned) and his later(I assumed) solid ink logo and low and behold they both had identical thin pressed in stamps. I expected to see the same as the above pictured stamp with the large CO.

I believe they continued the traditional later 70's thin stamp(pressed) for a few years after they switched to solid ink stamps. I have owned cymbals that have the original post stamp(pressed) and always assumed they were late 80's to very early 90's but I bought them used.

I can't for the life of me remember the stamp(pressed) that was on the only cymbal I ever bought new in 1992 that had the ink printed size and MEDIUM RIDE on it because is was partially covered by the ink. It was also so light you could barely see it. I must add it was a brilliant finish 20" from the factory.

I also must add I've owned the same stamped(pressed) cymbals as the O.P. with 3 dots in them and believed them to be in the early 90's era. Also very lightly pressed in but readable. I don't think I own any at the moment from that era.

Conclusion- late 80's in my opinion.

Gary