My brain is fried. What pen is this?

[distracted_mom]

I tried really hard to figure this out for myself and then I decided that I'd just come to you guys. A friend bought this pen for me from an antique store yesterday. I have awesome friends.

It was labeled as a Parker 51, and as I tried to date it last night, I don't think it's a 51, but a 51 Special or a 51 Demi. Can you help me?

It is 120mm from the tip of the barrel to the tip of the nib.
The nib is definitely silver in color.
There is no date stamp on it anywhere, but it does say "Made in the USA" on the back of the cap.
The filling directions say to press the ribbed bar 4 times and to use Parker Ink.
The jewel is black.

(please disregard my toes in the photo. But the flowers are pretty, right?)

Thanks for your help!

Untitled by Shannon Killion, on Flickr

Untitled by Shannon Killion, on Flickr

Untitled by Shannon Killion, on Flickr

Untitled by Shannon Killion, on Flickr

Untitled by Shannon Killion, on Flickr

[Laura N]

It looks to me like a 51 Special in Demi size. But I am no expert.

[distracted_mom]

It looks to me like a 51 Special in Demi size. But I am no expert.

So my answer could be "both?"
The only reason I am not just running with the Special is that is doesn't say "special" on it anywhere and the photos of the Specials I saw online did.

[Laura N]

Yes, the answer could be both. I just checked on the website of Ernesto Soler to confirm that some Specials were in Demi size.

Unlike Ernesto, I really don't know much about Specials -- I only had one, once, and mine was regular size. But mine did not say "Special" either. Mine did have the octanium nib and the shiny cap with black jewel, like yours. I have been read that some regular 51s have an octanium nib, but when you combine the nib with that cap, that seems to indicate Special, to me.

My aerometric Demi 51s have the same measurement as yours. So reasoning it out, it's a Demi by the size, and it sure seems like a Special by the nib and cap.

Yours looks in nice condition, especially the nib.

[pajaro]

The barrel looks longer than a demi. More likely to be a 51 Special. Silver colored nib would be Octanium, a steel alloy, Parker trade name..

[Jerome Tarshis]

It looks to me like a 51 Special in Demi size. But I am no expert.

So my answer could be "both?"
The only reason I am not just running with the Special is that is doesn't say "special" on it anywhere and the photos of the Specials I saw online did.

The Demi Specials didn't say "SPECIAL" on the filler unit. There you go. If the pen is 5" long capped, you've got a Demi Special.

[distracted_mom]

It is 5" long, not including the jewel. Is that the correct way to measure it?

[Jerome Tarshis]

Yes. Or (who knows?) including part of the jewel. This isn't work for a micrometer. The difference in capped length between the full-sized 51 Aero and the Aero Demi is 3/8 of an inch, i.e. almost a half-inch. No precision is needed.

[welch]

Most often, I've seen pens measured from end of the barrel to the top of the cap. A full-sized P51 is about 5 3/8 inches; a P51 Demi is about 5 1/8. What I'm calling the "end" is usually called the "blind cap" because the cap hides it when when "posted".

I've had several P51 Specials. The "octanium" nibs have held up well. Legend says that Parker put more effort into the finish of their gold nibs. Consider "octanium" as steel, but Parker mixed eight types of metal for their economy, or "not-gold", nibs. To compensate, they put more tipping material on their octanium nibs. Since a typical P51 might have been made in the early '50s, the extra tipping might have held up longer. Emphasis, of course, on "legend", "typical", and "might have"!

The 51 Special had a shiny cap with a black jewel. Regular 51s usually had a frosted cap (or some variation of gold plated) and a milk-colored jewel. Of course, someone might have switched the cap, or even the jewel. (I have a 51 Special with a smaller-than-normal milk-colored jewel. Looks like someone lost the black jewel and might have had a spare Parker 61 jewel.)


[Yikes! I meant that a DEMI is about 5 inches or maybe a shade longer than 5 inches. The 51 and 51 Special are both about 5 3/8 inches long, measured with the cap on.]

[pajaro]

And then again, there is the P51 Standard, gray jewel, Lustraloy cap, gold nib and filler that reads "Parker 51 Special."

[Jerome Tarshis]

Then again, yes, there was the Standard. It went from being just like a Special in 1957, by gradual steps, retaining the black jewel until the middle 1960s, to what pajaro describes. Step by step. I have one with a gold nib but a shiny steel cap and a black jewel.

And that's just what we may conjecture to have been the factory production. In days of yore, people bought fountain pens from good jewelry shops and from drugstores totally unlike what is referred to as a drugstore today. The person behind the counter was empowered to change this or that about your pen if you didn't like it the way it was. You were waited on by someone who was a solid citizen in the community, not a minimum-wage person who handles packages, scans bar codes, and accepts payment.

The result was a somewhat greater variety of pens in existence than one might think to look at published specifications. Fountain pens were created in the first instance by tinkerers, and the tinkering didn't stop when they left the factory.

[pajaro]

Then again, yes, there was the Standard. It went from being just like a Special in 1957, by gradual steps, retaining the black jewel until the middle 1960s, to what pajaro describes. Step by step. I have one with a gold nib but a shiny steel cap and a black jewel.

And that's just what we may conjecture to have been the factory production. In days of yore, people bought fountain pens from good jewelry shops and from drugstores totally unlike what is referred to as a drugstore today. The person behind the counter was empowered to change this or that about your pen if you didn't like it the way it was. You were waited on by someone who was a solid citizen in the community, not a minimum-wage person who handles packages, scans bar codes, and accepts payment.

The result was a somewhat greater variety of pens in existence than one might think to look at published specifications. Fountain pens were created in the first instance by tinkerers, and the tinkering didn't stop when they left the factory.

Greetings, Jerome.

My father had a Parker 51 standard given to him in 1958 when he left the Post Office in Boston. It came in a pen and pencil set, Lustraloy caps, gray jewels, twist action pencil, pen with gold nib, filler with "Parker 51 Special . . ." in Midnight blue.

I liked his set so much that I bought one myself in 1970. The only difference between his pen and pencil and mine was the Parker halo logos on mine, indicating my set was made in the 1960s. I lost the pencil, but I still use the pen every day, and the pen has only gotten better in writing quality over the years. It is truly the most cost effective pen I have ever bought, and the standard by which I judge all the rest.