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Originally Posted by Oriental-Arms
At the base of the blade there is a steel collar used to hold the blade well in the scabbard.
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An interesting hypothesis about the purpose of the collar is that it was used to accomodate for the grip in case an archer's finger was worn. Such rings were worn on the right hand's thumb and in a hurry, when taking the ring off was impossible, a normal grip would be quite uncomfortable, at least according to reenactors who have tried it in practice. To get a good grip in such a case, the easiest thing to put one's forefinger over the guard and in front of the so-called collar, the thumb with the ring lying on the guard. The collar serves to protect the forefinger from the edge. I do not know if this is true, but if you examine sabres with collars you will note that the collar is extended much further along the edge of the blade than on the spine, which seems to support this hypothesis.
As for the dating of sabres, there was a long thread in the forum a while ago. There are plenty of finds from the 9th century as deep into Europe as the Balkans and nowadays Hungary, which means they must have developped in Central Asia at least a century or two earlier.