Why There Is Different Writing Style On My Pens' Clips

[Danube]

Hi everyone,

I noticed that in my pens' clips there are two different writing style. One is more italic? What is the reason for this? Could it be production year or place? I would be verry happy if you could help me on this

[sriramoman]

The first (top, italicized engraving) pen is of a vintage Cross Century I ball pen (c. 1975-1980). The 2nd one is from a more recent/current instrument.

[MrThoth]

With Townsends, at least, cursive writing on the clip indicates the pen was made in the USA (or Ireland), while san serif writing indicates the pen was made in China.

 

I can't say for certain that holds true with other models, particularly older ones, but that'd be my explanation in this case.

[Jerome Tarshis]

It's true that my three Townsends say they were made in the USA and have the word "Cross" in script lettering.

 

Also true that my half-dozen Century FPs, the first version, on sale in the United States from 1984, introduced elsewhere in 1982, say they were made in the USA and have all-capitals lettering for the word "CROSS."

 

Although I don't feel industrious right now, it might be a good idea to search FPN for an explanation. One that I seem to remember is that the all-script Cross went on pens with gold nibs and the all-capitals CROSS went with steel nibs.

 

But some of mine came with both gold nibs and all-caps CROSS. I would like to believe that there are little islands of order and consistency in our too-often frightening and chaotic world. Maybe someone will find the rule governing the manufacturer's name on the clips.

[MrThoth]

My information is based on my analyzing my collection of 70 Cross Townsend FPs -- I was inspired by another thread here on the Cross forum a couple months ago. So I feel pretty confident in the US vs. China explanation, at least for Townsends.

 

However, in doing my research I didn't correlate with nib type, so I can't definitively speak to your theory about gold vs. steel nibs. It probably wouldn't be an accurate assessment anyway, given that Townsend nib units are readily interchangeable and I have in fact swapped some of them around. Heck, for all I know some of the ones I've purchased may not have come with their original nib units.

 

One of these days I need to make a field trip up to Lincoln, RI and put all these questions to someone at Cross who knows the truth.