Ever found a Parker "51" in the wild that had a nib of something other than gold?

I gambled and won on Ebay. The nib doesn't look like gold at all, not yellow-ish in the least.

Is it a 51 or a 51 Special?? The 51 Special had an octanium nib and not a gold nib. You can tell by the marking on the filler unit.
It is also possible that at some point the nib of a 51 was replaced with an octanium nib for any number of reasons...
Not a big thing as most octanium nibs write just as well as gold nibs.

The filler unit marking is Parker 51, not Parker 51 Special. The nib appears to be a fine or maybe an extra fine. Naturally, the nib needs a tweak or two.

The pen has some other "eccentricities" I will show later with pics. From looking online last night the pen itself is 1956 or after since it does not mention using Superchrome Ink on the filler, it mentions Parker Ink. Barrel breather hole is in the end of the barrel. The cap is an earlier Lustraloy? and gold blue diamond clip with no markings other than Parker on the clip.

I think I have a mutt on my hands. The pen is definitely user grade with plenty of wear. She flushed clean with water and takes ink. The pen feels great in my hand and writes a fine, but scratchy line. Not my proudest moment after being trigger happy on Ebay, but I'll live.

Sounds like you got your basic garden variety user ebay 51. there are nice 51's that go through on the bay. Last year i decided i needed one 51 for my collection (didn't have any).

Now at 13 and counting. most from ebay, range from mutts to a couple beautiful examples.

I just bought a 51 special from ebay - waiting for it to come in.

Supposedly reddish brown, and sold 'as-is'. Appears to be complete from the photos.

Paid $25.80 after shipping/handling/etc.

I also have a parker 21 set, with a _working_ liquid lead pencil. Anyone know where to buy refills?
(or at least, ball point refills of the same size? )

After this last set of stuff comes in, I'll sit down and order some repair parts from Tryphon and the Pen Sac company. I have a couple of Wearever's (clear plastic feed), three or four Esterbrooks, and a couple of other pens that I'll be fixing up, putting a couple aside, and maybe selling the others. Buying/fixing/playing is the purpose, not building up 600 pens. I'll probably sell off the Boston Safety Pen, now that it's cleaned up, generally checked, polished, and I've had my fun with it. I'm sure I can get back what I paid from one of the Wahl nuts


Troy

One way a '51 can have an octanium nib.
Some years ago I bought a '51 Demi (slightly smaller version of the '51). I was unhappy with the nib. I had an octanium nib that remained from replacement of the nib in a '21 with a gold nib. That octanium nib is now on the '51. Near the end of the model run of the '51s and the '21s, in the late'60s, the '51 and the '21 were nearly identical except for cosmetics and the nib material. And, as indicated above, the '51 Special had the same nib material as the then discontinued '21.