Original upper radiator hose?

I took the upper radiator hose off my '68 H/O when pulling the engine... I know that the engine had been replaced at some point (and the service block has really low mileage due to no wear), and the odometer shows 62k miles. The two wire clamps on both the upper and lower hoses were staked into position (see below picture), and there are some very faint markings left. Oddly enough, it had a spring INSIDE the upper hose, which makes zero sense to me at all. I bought an NOS upper radiator hose on eBay for comparison...

Could this be the original upper radiator hose for the car? It appears to have two white stripes that run the length of it and a marginally discernable number. The old hose doesn't have any numbers embossed/stamped into the surface like the NOS one does. I understand that this GM NOS hose could be nothing like what came on the factory cars, as NOS parts varied over the years based on suppliers and running changes...

Don't overwhelm me now, lol...

I can't say for sure, but I can at least dig through some other pictures of 68 H/Os engines to try to find similarities. It looks like your faint markings match in some areas.

Here is another good picture from a CO thread posted by costpenn.

Thanks! Weird that it doesn't seem to be the original one, though the clamps were staked in. Must have been some aftermarket piece at some time.

Gnarly assed hose. No wonder you replaced it. I bet the new one looks great! Nice work.

Here's some fakery.

The 71 has hoses with part numbers branded into them. no staples

"yet"

sorry not 68 info meister