Sailor pen with Swiss Bank Nib

[Chi]

Was just browsing to pass time and see a listing of this sailor pen.

Anyone knows any back story of this nib? My first time seeing it and find it very interesting.

this online pen shop I visit often currently has two listing of vintage sailor pens, different model, with this special engraving on their nibs.

Attached pictures are one of them.

 

Found a post about Gold from The Swiss Bank didn't really provide an answer but another observation. 

 

[awa54]

I don't know the real backstory, but have always thought it was just a cheezy sales ploy.

[stan]

Just a sales ploy. Nothing special about the gold. Maybe they got it from a gold ingot from Switzerland so they cannot be accused of lying.

[Chi]

Ha ha, okay~ 

well, it worked! I was curious about it and dig around for a bit.

[amberleadavis]

Looking forward to seeing what you found.

[jchch1950]

Swiss gold is different from any other gold? Which Swiss bank?

[mke]

5 hours ago, jchch1950 said:

Swiss gold is different from any other gold? Which Swiss bank?

Depends on the purity, otherwise - gold is gold.

 

According to someone on reddit: "The story goes that Sailor bought some gold from the Swiss private bank Pictet in the 1970s, and made a set of pens stamped “GOLD FROM THE SWISS BANK”. Purportedly, the gold was originally siphoned from France into Switzerland during the French Revolution to be protected."

[awa54]

Interesting also that a pen with "special" gold was just 14k and from a maker that has made 23k nibs and regularly produces 21k...

 

That Swiss gold must have been expensive

[Chi]

@mke that's a pretty cool back story! Thank you for sharing.

 

@awa54 LOL. There doesn't seem to be a through line either. The production seemed to be wide spread in varieties in terms of what year and model this gold was distributed to.

[PithyProlix]

"Gold From Mponeng, World's Deepest Mine". Now *that* on a nib just might tip me over into a pen purchase...

[arcfide]

Gimmick or not, that's a nice looking pen. 

[Number99]

I checked Japanese blogs, but they were all "unknown" as well.

 I feel that the date of the pen shown in the presented blog post exactly coincides with the time of the "gold crash".

 At that time, 1 gram of gold plummeted to around 900JPY (8-9 USD).

 The cause was actually the release of gold by Russia and dependence on the US dollar, but I remember that various rumors were disseminated at that time.

 

 An expression of the certainty of gold quality guarantee?

 

*Correction

 It is said that the description of this wording has been in the nib of the Sailor Pen for a long time.

 If so, Japan had a vague brand image of finance including gold, which is "Switzerland when it comes to gold".

 In fact, at that time, there was a chronic shortage of gold in Japan, and it seems that many Credit Suisse ingots were flowing in Japan.

 

 That's about it, but when it comes to Swiss gold, we Japanese have some sense of security in terms of quality.

 

 Blog post about old gold.

 

https://kanteikyoku-risecorporation.com/k_ns_creditsuisse_20200924/

 

https://nakaoka-inc.com/staffblog/reasonto-gold-swithland

 

I found another blog post.

 A specific bank name will appear, but it is not clear.

 It seems that there is no description in the company history.

 

 There must be a reason, but …

 

 The translation software works effectively.

 

http://blog.livedoor.jp/nekopen23/lite/archives/55492842/comments/7291177/

 

It seems that there is a "Swiss Bank" in the manufacturer of gold ingots.

 

https://gold110.jp/gold-platinum/インゴットの価値と主要ブランド/

 

Such a topic is called "Urban Legend" in Japan.

 

 It's up to you to believe it.

 

 

 

Edited January 29, 2022 by Number99
Addition of sentence

[PithyProlix]

I just received this same model in black. It's my only "GOLD FROM THE SWISS BANK" pen. I was struck by how similar it looks to the resin Pilot Custom. But I mainly came here to add that the nib is really nice - it has a soft feel on the page - not springy or flexible - more of a brush-like feel. Difficult to describe but noticeably distinct when you try it. Some of my Sailor and Platinum pocket pens of the same era have a similar feel (getting a nib with this feel seems hit or miss - some of my Sailors and Platinums of the era have it but most don't), so nothing to do with the source of the gold, I'm sure. 😉 

 

Parenthetical, though interesting: There was (is?) a great deal of gold in Swiss banks that the Nazis had plundered from Holocaust victims and occupied countries during WWII. It is unlikely that it can ever be determined whether or not these pens have any of that gold, though ...

[Number99]

On 9/1/2023 at 4:44 PM, PithyProlix said:

Parenthetical, though interesting: There was (is?) a great deal of gold in Swiss banks that the Nazis had plundered from Holocaust victims and occupied countries during WWII. It is unlikely that it can ever be determined whether or not these pens have any of that gold, though ...

The "Swiss Bank" ingot manufacturer, which ceased to exist in 1998, was a trusted source of ingots in Japan as the main source of ingots until a Japanese ingot manufacturer was approved.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_Bank_Corporation

 

P.S. 

I'm not sure how long it will take for the link to disappear again.

But I am attaching a link to the image.

*Image from Brand Lab.

Note the logo, which features three keys.

 

 

It appears that Metalor Technologies (Métaux Précieux SA Metalor), the ingot-making arm of Swiss Bank Corporation, is now part of "Tanaka Kikinzoku Kogyo", one of the major suppliers of ingots in Japan.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metalor_Technologies

 

However, this is a description of ingots distributed in Japan and not of nibs.

 

Edited September 2, 2023 by Number99