Katipunan Dagger

[Robert]

About the three circles (sun symbols) arranged in the triangle configuration on the ends of the guard, as mentioned in my first posting I had seen these before in the form of rank designation. When I mentioned this to Lorenz this was his response:

[/QUOTE] On your query, I totally forgot commenting about that point. Yes indeed, I agree very much that the three circles arranged in a triangular fashion can also mean that the Katipunero who used to own that must had been a brigadier general (never thought of that, but now that you've mentioned it, I agree 100%). Those symbols you see can have more than one meaning - hence it appears to have both, the mystical (the Katipunan's iconic triangle and the sun symbol) and the technical/practical (to denote a rank, which in this case was ingenious/creative indeed). [/QUOTE]

I cannot find the original information I had (this is what happens when you do not back up your information and your computer crashes) showing these very early rank designations, but after a search I did find these later examples. The difference between the symbol used on this daggers guard and the one in the chart below was that the earlier symbol did not use the letter "K" in the center of the circles as shown in this later example. There were also some slight differences in some of the other symbols as well and if I remember correctly again it was only the absence of the "K" in some but not all of the other designations.

Best,
Robert