Relatively Smooth Estie Cap Rings?

[AAAndrew]

I'm sure this is just a product of later manufacturing or something, but I noticed today that my black "J" pen has a cap ring that is almost completely smooth. There are two very faint lines only hinting at the normal double triple hump cap ring, but it feels quite smooth. It's as if the lines are basically etched in rather than the humps are raised above the ring.

 

I know it's not wear because this is from a set that was still in the box with the original stickers on it and I just started using it a month or so ago.

 

Can anyone confirm my suspicion that this is just a sign of increasingly lax manufacturing standards at Esterbrook when the pen was made? Or are these quite common throughout the time and just depended on the shift in the factory and I should just move on? (which I should do anyway, I'm sure)

 

Just curious as I hadn't noticed it before on any of my other Esties nor on pictures online. But I may just not be looking in the right places.

 

 

For comparison, here's a pic of my copper J. The lever is the same on both, I think it's called the spade lever as opposed to the spoon lever?

 

 

Thanks!

[bfg]

I don't know how the ridges w done; whether cast or etched. Given the cost of these pens I don't imagine it was a precision process. Perhaps this one just didn't take a very deep ridge.