I think there is a very good chance we are overthinking this. There is only one reason a peghead gets spliced/repaired/refinished: it broke. Plain and simple. The peghead overlay was retained to save the Gibson logo and flower pot. If this repair was done 40-50 years ago, those items were not available like they are today (eBay, internet, etc.) Was the truss rod removed? We don't know -- might still be in there! Why was the fingerboard removed? We don't know. We also don't know the skill level of the repairman. Maybe this is the first repair of this type he attempted and was just "thinking" his way through it? Obviously, a better repairman today could make the "repair lines" almost invisible. My vote would be that the neck and peghead are original and a piece was spliced in to facilitate a repair, possibly for strength, at least in the mind of the repairman. Mandolin originally had a truss rod, which is in keeping with the serial number and time period. Reason for weird dots and side markers? Again, 40-50 years ago, nobody knew. There were no forums discussing such minutiae. Authentic repairs depended on the experience of the repairman. Unless the repairman worked at Gibson, Gruhn's, Mandolin Brothers, or Elderly -- he probably wouldn't run into an F4 everyday, especially a guitar repairman. Anyway my two cents. You wouldn't build a new neck just to repair a peghead crack unless it was just splinters. You would repair the original neck. Just like you wouldn't take a car in for a brake job and get it repainted as part of the repair, logic would dictate.
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