Cymbal Stamp Timelines

Other Stamps

Cymbal Stamps

Cymbals are engraved with a trademark by the maker. These "stamps" are the only reliable mechanism for dating the cymbals. The engraved stamp cannot be erased because it is in the metal. Most other features may be removed through cleaning.

The date of a cymbal is important because different periods in the evolution of the modern drum set are marked by distinct acoustic potentialities. These differences are produced by differences of cymbal-smithery which are associated with the different decades.

Old Stamp I (1930s-1945)

The capital city of Turkey officially changed its name from “Constantinople” to “Istanbul” in 1930. It was not until many years later that the K Zildjian Cymbal factory updated its cymbal stamps. The first stamp that included the word “Istanbul” used a tall narrow font, and eliminated the word “trademark” which had appeared on earlier stamps under the word Constantinople.

This stamp was the last one to use the old fashioned way to abbreviate the phrase “and company” as “& Cie“. Later stamps all use “& Co.”
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Old Stamp IIa (1945-49)

The phrase ‘K Zildjian’ was shrunk compared to the preceding stamp.

Also now the font for the word “Istanbul” is as tall as the star and moon. Stamp I used a smaller font which was shorter than the star and moon.

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Old Stamp IIb (1949-1950)

This stamp is almost identical to IIa except that it has a big K. The word “Zildjian” is top-aligned with the K, as though it were a superscript.

It should also be mentioned that these are also often referred to as Stamp III because of the big K. In fact, that might even be more common than calling it IIb. Still, those that refer to this as a “III” do not provide the nuanced IIIa, IIIb, IIIc that can be found frequently used to distinguish these cymbals and date them.
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Old Stamp IIIa (1950-53)

The Moon becomes thinner for in this stamp, and the word Zildjian is bottom-aligned with the letter K.

The word “in” from “Made in Turkey” also appeared smaller on the preceding stamps.

Old Stamp IIIb (1953-1956)

The font for the bottom word “Zildjian” grew taller in this stamp. This is the only difference I’ve ever been able to see and it makes this stamp difficult to distinguish.

More photos and a soundfile after the jump.
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Old Stamp IIIc (1956-57)

This stamp is distinguished by the position of the star further away from the inside of the moon. The phrase ‘Made in Turkey’ appears more horizontal on this stamp, that is: less hooked around the moon. This is the only stamp with this arabic script and the spread out “Made in Turkey.”
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Old Stamp IVa (1957-58)

The Arabic in this stamp has been stylized with a different font. The Arabic part of Stamps IV are often illegible — there are more examples after the jump.
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The difference between IVa and IVb has to do with the star and crescent moon.
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Old Stamp IVb (1959)

The star and moon look different in this stamp, and “Made in Turkey” wraps around it.
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Intermediate Stamp (1959-1966)

The intermediate stamp replaces the former block of Arabic text with some sort of gibberish symbols. It is not Arabic, unless it is the Comic Sans font for Arabic(?) I seriously don’t know what the symbols mean. If anyone knows, please share.
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The English component of this stamp always seems to have some stamping problem, so it is often illegible. The distinguishing feature is the combination of the small-sized star in the crescent with the non-standard symbols where one would expect the Arabic.
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New Stamp (1967-77)

The so-called new stamp looks very similar to the intermediate stamp, with the main difference being the size and location of the star above the crescent moon. Also, the stamp seemed to imprint the English more thoroughly than with the intermediate stamp, but there is often double stamping, as the cymbalsmiths pressed the stamp twice by hand.
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Other Identifying Features

Other cymbal identifiers may be lost over time, such as stickers, ink labels, grease pencil writing, and signatures under the bell.

Under the Bell:

Cymbalsmith signature under the bell, and ZILDJIAN sticker from the 1950s.

Ink Label from 1959:

K.-ZILDJIAN & Co.
ISTANBUL
THE ORIGINAL AND ONLY
AUTHENTIC TURKISH CYMBAL

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Related material

Soundfiles of cymbals
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Litte G on the edge:

Many old K Zildjian cymbals from Istanbul are marked with a small letter "G" toward the edge on the underside. This marking indicates that the cymbal was distributed by the Gretsch Drum Company.