look at it this way- would it look better if you engraved?:
"December - Nine - Two Thousand Nineteen"
i think you're pretty much gonna have to go with an alphanumeric mix. ;-)
I used to do it that way, but learned/developed a much better, sharper, clearer, more durable, technique with damar varnish. Done properly, it almost looks like the metal part went thru my printer.
i knew a guy in high school who shot an arrow straight up in his front yard. it came down right in the middle of the hood on his mom's station wagon. Put a hole in the air filter cover, too. LMAO.
I recently visited my parents who have lived in the same house I grew up in since 1962. Whenever I'm there I try to spend some time cleaning out a bit of the accumulated detritus. It's actually not too bad compared to some horror stories I've heard from friends and when they eventually move...
i wrap a thin (1/8" wide) strip of white Post-It correction tape around the band, mark where the ends overlap, peel it off and stick it to my bench top. then i divide the circumference by however many sections i need, put the tape back on the band and mark the metal.
IIRC, Lynton McKenzie once said that if his microscope was ever lost, broke, or stolen, he wouldn't engrave anything until it was replaced. I'm of a very like mind. Occasionally I'm forced to work without it if an object is too large or awkward to get in my vise under the scope, or maybe...
there's one for sale on the Asheville area Nextdoor.com neighborhood site. if you don't live here you probably can't access that, but i would be glad to pass along contact info from any interested parties.