Hello everyone. I was hoping someone might help me identify a recent purchase. I troll the auction sites looking for deals and I find the best of these come in the form of mislabeled/poorly represented pens. I was on the hunt a few nights ago trying to track down some of the more obscure Italian market M100's when I came across a listing for an M100 with OBB nib for 49 euros. Nothing stood out other than the fact it was far from an M100 and I made the purchase on a hunch (the price seemed pretty good too).
First, the furniture is gold which disqualifies it from being an M100. Next, the cap band is not beveled with makes it not an M150 either. I was doing some research and found that ruettinger-web.de notes that there was a pre-'97 model M200 made in a small run for the export market that had a green ink window and 1 cap band instead of 2. The picture of it on that site as linked matched up pretty good so what I think I have then is an export model M200. Can anyone confirm or deny this?
What has me now doubting myself is an old catalog scan (depicted below) out of Japan that I found in a posting on another site which list an M481 that looks a lot like this pen as well. I'm still not clear on the lineage of the M481 and where it fits into the grand scheme other than it was a precursor to the M150, renamed when the M400 became popular in order to distinguish the lines. If anyone has more info on the M481, I would love to hear it. So what do you think? I'm certain that this find of mine is not an M100 as advertised but is it an M200 export model or an M481? Thank you in advance for your responses.
My mystery pen...
M200_Export1.jpg
M200_Export5.jpg
M200_Export.jpg
Catalog Scan of M481/150/100
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