Curious mark on Gold Godron Centennial

[Paul-in-SF]

This pen arrived today, and even though it's flashier than my usual taste I am liking it very much. It has a nice heft to it, and a good balance for writing. 

 

However, this is not a review. I just noticed this curious tiny mark on the back of the cap. At first I thought it was some kind of hallmark, but through magnification, it shows up as a square with the letters P  P and in between an arrow pointing up. You can see that the godron columns are interrupted to provide a place for it, so it's clearly very intentional. 

 

It's difficult to see, but I think I captured it in this photo. Below is a photo of the pen (a publicity shot, not my actual pen, but they look the same; mine's like the one at the top). What is this mark and what purpose does it serve? Thanks in advance for any information (or educated guesses). 

 

 

[mitto]

That means "Parker Pens France". 

[Paul-in-SF]

12 hours ago, mitto said:

That means "Parker Pens France". 

 

Thank you. 

 

It surprises me that this pen, made in 1991-1995 while the UK factory was still very active, was made in France. I wonder if this mark was put on any other Parker pens made in France (I only have one that I know of, a much later Big Red Centennial with the wide cap band, and it just has France engraved on the cap band.) I'd be very interested to read more about this if there is a resource that I can get to. 

 

Edit: never mind, I found it here: http://www.parkerpens.net/codekey.html (a link that I have added to my resource bookmarks). Thanks. 

[Paul-in-SF]

Interesting anomaly, on further examination the faux blind cap has Made in UK on it (with a date code of 3rd quarter 1991). I'm sure I never will, but I'd be interested to find out the story of how that happened.

[Paul-in-SF]

Here's a follow-up question on a different nib:

 

I bought a replacement nib from the MKI era of Duofold Centennials. The hallmark on this nib is not listed on parkerpens.net/codekey. They have a diamond shape (for USA), an almost-square vertical rectangle shape (for France), just the letters PPCO for Canada, and a sideways rectangle without the arrow for UK. My hallmark has PP with the arrow, but in an oval frame. It's quite small and I wasn't able to get a good photo, but you can see the oval outline anyway. 

 

I assume this is a manufacturing location, and I am curious which one it represents.