Interesting take on the saddle. I have 3 other Ideale(s) with the shinny nose, and the el cheapo notion never occurred to me on this odd one. May be i'm just a low rent district guy.... The leather on the el cheapo seems to be high quality and the stamp is interesting. May be i'll weight the saddles and the el cheapo will 'shine' on being a few grams lighter . Then we can call the missing nose a performance enhancement feature.