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Thread: Parker ID help

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    Default Parker ID help

    Hello Friends,

    I'm still learning about vintage pens and could use your help. I was recently gifted this pen.

    Clearly marked Parker 21 on the cap. Also clearly marked Parker 51 on the filler.

    Do I have a 21 with a 51 filler, or a 51 with a 21 cap?

    Color - pretty sure it's Teal, and my camera has shifted this to the blue. It's quite a bit more green in real life.

    Also...aprrox vintage? 60's?

    Thanks everyone...

    [IMG][/IMG]

    [IMG][/IMG]

    [IMG][/IMG]

    [IMG][/IMG]

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    Default Re: Parker ID help

    Wrong cap. Pen is a 51.

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    Scrawler (April 5th, 2021)

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    Default Re: Parker ID help

    Yay for me!

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    Default Re: Parker ID help

    Any help on the era? Am I correct in guessing that it's 1960's-ish? I can't make sense of the nib code. I'd like to find a correct cap for it.
    Last edited by BowlingBallBaby; March 24th, 2021 at 06:59 AM.

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    Senior Member jar's Avatar
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    Default Re: Parker ID help

    IIRC and it hasn't been over polished there will be a date code on the barrel, two numbers and some dots. The numbers will give you a year and the dots a quarter. The filed away a dot for each quarter, three dots is first quarter, two dots second quarter, one dot third quarter and no dots fourth quarter. .

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    Senior Member jos's Avatar
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    Default Re: Parker ID help

    Any 1950s or 1960s Parker 51 cap will be correct. A gold filled cap would look great on that pen.

    The 21 cap is wrong for your pen but that cap is a bit peculiar: it is the cap that was on the earliest Parker "21 Super" when it was introduced in 1957. The cap is easy recognizable by the stylized clip with imprinted feathers on top and an imprinted arrow on bottom of the clip. These caps are not rare but a bit uncommon because they were used for maybe two years (1957-59) on the Parker 21 Super. The later caps had the well known arrow clip that would survive until the 1970s.

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    Default Re: Parker ID help

    No date codes anywhere. I've inspected every millimeter of the barrel, screwed on and off. I don't think it's unusual for later aerometrics to have no date code, but wah...

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    Default Re: Parker ID help

    No date code suggests that the pen is circa 1953 or later. The Parker 51 timeline at Parker51.com will be of help to roughly estimate a production date of your pen:
    http://parker51.com/index.php/education/51-chronology/

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    azkid (March 25th, 2021)

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    Default Re: Parker ID help

    Thanks! Very helpful!

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    Default Re: Parker ID help

    Too bad the cap is wrong, because some of the dating details on Parker51.com's timeline refer to the cap, but those details might help you to find the nearest correct cap for your pen. The timeline at Parker51.com has been very helpful to me in dating used 51s I bought.

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    Default Re: Parker ID help

    The Syndicate really needs to update that timeline.

    Does the nib have dimples?

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    Default Re: Parker ID help

    FarmBoy. I'm not sure I know what the dimples are. Enlighten me?

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    Default Re: Parker ID help

    Quote Originally Posted by BowlingBallBaby View Post
    FarmBoy. I'm not sure I know what the dimples are. Enlighten me?
    Please don’t encourage him...


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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    Default Re: Parker ID help

    Quote Originally Posted by Farmboy View Post
    The Syndicate really needs to update that timeline.

    Does the nib have dimples?
    If it comes to that, the Syndicate might wish to discuss a corrected edition of the Parker 51 book.

    As for the nib, I understand that various words that have possible anatomic reference are used to describe nibs, but IME "dimples" is not one of them. I have held Parker 51 nibs, among others, in my hands without seeing anything I'd think of as dimples. It's true that I've seen soft-plastic hoods of less expensive pens that develop what are arguably dimples.

    I am curious about dimples in nibs that haven't been injured.
    Last edited by Jerome Tarshis; March 25th, 2021 at 09:50 PM.

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    Default Re: Parker ID help

    Parker did indeed state that the “... nib has two small dimples on the lower part of its tubular body...”

    Can’t make this stuff up...


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    Default Re: Parker ID help

    Smith is reading his mail and got to page 7.

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    Default Re: Parker ID help

    I am fazing fixedly at the drawings in early pages of the Parker 51 book, and I'm not seeing what I think of as dimples in the nibs. However, the pen was developed in the late 1930s, which was quite a long time ago. I would therefore add to Farmboy's question the further question of whether the nib has laughter lines around its eyes. That nib is no longer young.

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    Default Re: Parker ID help

    During its teen years the nib had dimples.

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    Default Re: Parker ID help

    Much talk, no images

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    Default Re: Parker ID help

    Quote Originally Posted by proteus View Post
    Much talk, no images
    Images are in the Pennant. I’ll see if I can get the PCA to post it as the feature article, otherwise it come with membership!

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