What is certain is that we can speculate ad nausea whether the blade was etched at the time of manufacture or much later.
Then, we can speculate if it was etched in the 19th century or 30 years ago.
We will NEVER be able to establish with 100% certainty any of the above mentioned asumptions.
But, based on the shape of the blade and amount of corosion on the tang we can presume with a reasonable degree of certainty this is a regular Afghan khyber blade from 19th to early 20th century.
The presence of the etching, however, is absolutely atypical for the Afghan khyber swords and this is also reasonably certain.
Then, the blade can be
1. with an original etching, making it an exception/curiosity;
2. with a later etching to make it more attractive.
Out of these two alternatives, I would choose the second as I consider it much more likely than the first one, since the I do not really believe in miracles (but as Mahratt said "miracles do happen").
PS: How much would this sword fetch if it weren't etched?!
How much could it fetch as an "exceptionally rare and dated" Khyber sword?!
The damaged hilt would enhance the impression of authenticity...
