Nipped this baby off of ebay and it arrived today. It measures 12.2cm capped, 14.5cm posted. rounded cap, gold clip, single gold band on cap and a clear (not green) ink window. It has what appears to be a 14k M nib.

The band reads: "Pelikan + W-Germany".

Here are the pics from the auction:





Is this a Pelikan 250? About what time period is it from?

Thanks all.

Chris

From the look of the nib, it appears that you have a old style Pelikan 200 with a steel nib.
The gold nibs are marked 14k-585.
Old style because of the finial at the top of the cap.

I will say it is from the mid to late 1980's, because West Germany and the DDR started reunification in 1989. So it ain't later than that.

It could be a 4xx too, since that and the 2xx series are the same size.

I figuered it was pre-1989 with the "W-Germany" on the cap band. Odd it says that as I have 2 1965/66 Pelikan Silvexa M20s (M and BB nibs) that say: "Pelikan * Silvexa 20 * Germany" on the cap. No mention of E or W on them.

I see this pen may cause a little debate as to what model it is.

My guess of it being a 250 was based on pictures I've seen of the 200/250/400. The 250 was the only one with a clear ink window. The other 2 had green windows. But that doesn't mean I'm right by any stretch.

The nib kind of feels like it's a steel one. Kind of scratchy. It is a fairly smooth writer though. Took a long time to get the previous owner's ink out of the nib. They used some flavor of orange in it that took forever to get out.

250 and 400 are/were sold with 14K nibs in most cases (exceptions being the occasional 18K nib for a particular seller like Levenger). That nib is steel and the pen is definitely *not* 400 styling regardless of age.

I have little doubt it's an 80s-ish 200. All three of my old style 200s have clear windows - not green. I'm not even sure there was a 250 designation back in in the period this pen was made. The whole point of the 250 designation was the fact that it had a single-tone 14K nib vs. GP steel. Otherwise, there's little reason to designate it such - especially a black model. The plating on the cap and clip of a 250 is no different from that on a 200. In the late 90s some 250 models were made with color schemes different from the 200s and that can be telling. These, of course, had the post-97 styling.

That your 60s Silvexa has no designation of W. Germany probably only speaks to the probability that in the 60s it wasn't deemed necessary by the Powers that Be to add the W. It would be helpful to know at what point this became an important feature in German marketing/exporting practice. All the more helpful to know when the 250 designation was first used. I suspect it was post '97 but have no proof of that. If I'm right - then there would never be any debate as to whether an old style 200-series was a 200 or 250.

of course, you can "make it" a 250 by your own definition if you just swap out the gp nib for a 14K nib.

I just took a good guess at what it was based on pictures I saw on the 'net.

1980's Pelikan 200 it is.

This 200 is my first 'modern' Pelikan FP.

I think I will have to look into a 14k nib on it as the nib is a bit disappointing as compared to my two 60s Silvexas, which do have 14k nibs on them though the nibs bear no markings one way or the other. They don't look like much, but they are a pair of super sweet writers.

C

yeah - all sorts of rules and regs developed in various countries re: gold content as a result of export/import requirements. So it would also be nice to know at what point Germany started requiring gold content markings. (and other countries for that matter.) Unfortunately, a lot of that stuff is tangential to the pen topic and requires familiarity with many different countries practices and histories so I'm sure *some* folks in the community know the answers but not enough to make it common knowledge. Maybe the experts could compile a resource on these practices someday since i suspect those who study German pens vs. Italian vs. UK vs. Asian...blah blah yadda yadda yadda could come up with some interesting and useful timelines for all of us struggling to ID our pens.

but that might be wishful thinking on my part.

It´s a Pelikan 150, a smaller version of the 200. It´s about 120 mm long, whereas the M200 is 128 mm. I´ve got one exactly like this one in the picture.

hmm..

i didn't pay one bit of attention to the size of the pen.

egg, what egg? I had mac and cheese for lunch.

Unfortunately, a quick squiz at the Wikipedia only gives info for Britain and France, but as expected, marking gold in those countries goes back to the Middle Ages.

My sense is that an officially sanctioned assay mark of some kind is *very* old practice in most of Europe. I know that US nibs of the golden age often had no mark of gold proportion at all, but I think this is specific to the US.

FWIW I have two MB cartridge pens. One has the MB logo, but no claim for gold content, the other has "585", but no MB logo. I'm told (by people I believe) that the one with just the logo is gold-plated steel, and I'd guess any European nib without a carat or pts per 1000 marking would not be gold.

Best

Michael

Who is more puzzled by 1960s pens NOT being labelled W. Germany, since the W was de rigueur for W. German cameras in that period, IIRC.

Ok...it's a 150 then.

Thanks for all the help in identifying the model pen.



I never thought twice about it until I saw the W on the band of the 150. I rechecked the caps on both of my Silvexas and they both just say Germany. It is odd that they don't specify. Differentiating E from W was a big deal for decades.