G'day all,
Alan and Shahrial are right of course. There is so much uncertainty involved,
I merely 'stirred the pot to see what would surface'.
BTW Alan, for the sake of being pedantic, I did write: '...
some or all of the 3000 or so ...' as I had doubts about the probability of such a large number as well..
On a more serious note though: What has puzzled me from the beginning is the use of Hindu-Arabic/Decimal numbers and the use of the Julian Calendar, if that is indeed what they are. I would have expected something in Arabic or Hanacaraka using the Islamic Calendar or Saka Calendar.
Maybe it was made for the benefit of a European.
Looking at the photo above, I wonder if the '24' could be a '21'?
If so, I'll make another calculated guess:
If it is a date, then it is: 21-1-1771.
Drawing a VERRYYY long bow, this was the DOB of one Vice-Admiral Arnold Adriaan Buyskes, Commissary-General of the Netherlands East Indies 1816-1818.
Maybe the hilt was made to commemorate his DOB.
Cheers
