The half moon symbol in early Spanish swords

[fernando]

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

... The number 3 seems to appear in a number of the punzones, but indeed, the character may be a letter in the calligraphy of Spanish dialects or geographic and period references. Again, I hope you might set this straight.
Curiously, the numeric three in various symbolic application is believed to represent the Holy Trinity in Christianity as well as the Holy Three in other religions symbolism. I have even seen the number '3' standing alone on some western blades.

Jim, you know that i am not much of a fan of esoterism, such as you are, as i prefer digging into more 'skeptical' interpretations. In looking back to considerations written in LA MARCA DEL PERRILLO DEL ESPADERO ESPAÑOL JULIAN DEL REY by J. J. Rodriguez Lorente, we quotes Sánchez Cantón, who interpreters Jehan Lhermite's attributions to the mark of Sebastian Hernandez, as being a 'Z' with an arched tail . So we have here a period stylized (cursive) letter 'Z' trasvestized to our modern eyes as being a number '3'. We might then be closer from the toponimic mark of Zaragossa, in view of both Fernandez and Hernandez and having possibly such origin. How is this for an approach ?

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