Hopping back with a garab

[xasterix]

I've taken a break from sword collecting for quite a while, but recently hopped back by acquiring this garab. 19in blade, 5.5in hilt, 1.2cm spine, hefty feel. At first glance, I would posit it as conservatively late 1800s to early 1900s. A closer look reveals several things:

1. It has been repaired. There's a sliding panel-repair at the back, and the blade tang is pinned through the wooden hilt. My theory is that a stress crack occurred at that location. The artisan decided to remedy the crack by carving out a panel-section at the affected area, then reinforcing the blade with a pin at the same time.

2. The rattan wrap is minimal. There are telltale marks on the wood that it's only had 2 rattan bands ever since; the rest of the grip seems to be bare right from the start. I've seen at least one sample on the Krieger plates with a similar configuration- and I've held 2 other garabs with only rattan bands as opposed to full rattan wrap.

3. The scabbard rope stopper is an old Spanish coin. From what remains of the back part, it seems to be a Queen Isabella II, 8 Maravedis Spanish coin (1836-1858 production). It makes me suspect that this garab build could have existed even before late 1800s. The flip side, of course, was that it could have been placed by an owner who simply collected and affixed coins older than his current era (late 1800 perhaps).

4. A mini-rattan band longitudinal retrofit can be seen at the edge side of the scabbard; this helps keeps the scabbard closed and prevents the edge from peeking out.

5. There is a small, circular MOP affixed on the scabbard rope-holder area.

6. I'm guessing, based on taking apart similarly-featured blades before, that it has a laminated construction; but I prefer it to be cleanly polished for now.

Let me know what you think...TIA!