Well, got around to cleaning the latest Type 53, and found a couple of things. First is what appears to be a round cartouche of some sort towards the bottom right side of the stock. Chinese stocks have a myriad of small round cartouches on them, but this one appears larger than average. It also appears to have an oriental character of some sort inside the circle. Dont know how well it turned out in the pics. Second is what appears to be a yellow painted character inside the stock where the magazine assembly fits. Anyone out there with a Type 53 that has anything similar to these?

---------- Post added at 10:33 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:28 PM ----------

Actually now that I look at all the pics, the cartouche shows up better in the pic of the whole rifle...