Can a genuine 146 come without the pix imprint below the clip ?

[lowks]

A guy here wants to sell me his 146. I have held and seen the pen. Everything looks legit except for the "pix" imprint below the clip. Can a genuine 146 come without that imprint ?

[jar]

Yes.

[SeminarianMike]

2x yes

[lowks]

Okay, from what I gather watching YouTube videos and trawling blogs, the "pix" imprint is not a good way of catching fakes anyway.

[mhosea]

Okay, from what I gather watching YouTube videos and trawling blogs, the "pix" imprint is not a good way of catching fakes anyway.

Pity they don't use their talents for good. The Pix and serial numbers are not helpful (unless you can note that it has the same serial number as a known knockoff--takes time to change the serial number with each pen). The first thing I look at in photos is the nib. Deep, clean imprints with the same patterns and fonts as photos of known authentic Montblancs. Knockoffs have steel nibs, generally, and they can sometimes be very close, but they usually have noticeably shallower markings, or less crisp ones, sometimes different fonts for thinks like the 14K marking. On a gold nib the plating is platinum and the base color is yellow gold. On a steel nib, the base color is stainless steel, and the plating is gold. Montblanc nibs usually have pretty good plating, while the gold plating on a steel nib will often look like somebody had trouble coloring inside the lines.

Second, if there's a knock-off 146 that has a working piston filler, I'm not aware of it. Up to now, they've always been cartridge/converter pens, though I saw a picture of one recently that looked like it might be a captured converter.

[Chrissy]

Okay, from what I gather watching YouTube videos and trawling blogs, the "pix" imprint is not a good way of catching fakes anyway.

This is true enough. Oh and I'm 3x Yes BTW.

If it has a Montblanc working piston filling mechanism, not some sort of internal converter, you're safe.

[jar]

IIRC the "Pix" stamp was added around 1997.