Hi Ian,
Thank you for your insights and for identifying the daggers as of Ilocano craftsmanship.
The other information you provided are all plausible. In light of what you said, may I just add the possibility that the daggers were crafted by an Ilocano blacksmith in the Visayas. Pockets of various ethnic groups have always been scattered across the archipelago. By the nineteenth century, the Ilocanos are particularly known to have reached distant places during their diaspora. Another possibility is that the daggers were brought to the Visayas either by the revolutionary forces or even just as a commodity of trade. Inter-island/inter-regional trading was common since the precolonial era.
On the use of "y" instead of "i" in the inscription, I've also seen old maps where the Philippine Islands is written as "Yslas Filipinas" instead of the more common "Islas Filipinas." Even the name of the bustling town of Ilo-ilo in the same region as Samar, is sometimes written as Ylo-ylo in some documents. It is however the first time I've seen it used in Fylypyno. Your point on the lack of education of the inscriber or the one who requested the inscription may account for this. 19001 may have been stated (verbally) as "nineteen hundred one" and thus the error. Such interesting possibilities!
Kind regards
Fernando
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