My uncle has just given me a Parker 51. It writes beautifully (Waterman Havane ink) and I am thrilled! I have noticed the imprint 'Made in England .5' on the barrel, but after some research I am unable to make sense of this. Any suggestions would be most welcome!
Andy

It's fairly simple, the 5 denotes the year, and the dots represent which quarter.

Thanks for your response. But I'm still not sure WHICH year '.5' actually means!
Andy

The third Quarter of 1945.

A picture would be nice!

Oh, and congratulations.

As you say the colour is "Burgundy", I take it is an aerometric. If so, .5 denotes third quarter of 1955. American 51's were
not dated after 1953, but that is not the case with English ones. I myself have an English aero having .4.(1954) date code.

And if it's a vac, it is third quarter 1945.
Hope this helps.

I have now included a photo in my post at the top: hopefully this will clarify things!
Thanks
Andy

Yes... A nice Burgundy 51 aero..... from 1955.
Congrats and enjoy!

I have a 1948 version of the same thing...burgundy is a really nice 51 color. Congrats!

Aerometric fillers did not debut until 1948, I think, so yeah, I think that would be an English 1955. Nice that you can know the date on the English ones!

This looks like a very nice pen - what a great gift to come out of the blue!

Thank you everyone for your help and your enthusiasm. It is great to have access to such a wealth of knowledge!
Cheers
Andy

THAT"S NO FAIR!
There was no mention of it being an "Aerometric" nor a picture when I played "Guess the Date"!

hmmmmm, grumble grumble grumble ....

Still a nice pen though.....

I just got a very similar pen on ebay with a burgundy barrel and Made in England 0, which I presume is a first quarter 1950 since it is an Aeromatic (not a vac). My question is the barrel has PARKER on it but next to this is the letter F near the cap ring open end. The barrel is matte silver.

Can anyone tell me what the F on the cap means?

TIA