Parker Vacumatic Fountain Pen. How to tell if it's Gold?? Also a few silvers
pcgs69
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Finally getting around to posting finds from this weekend. Got out to a couple places. No chance of anything too old, but there was a chance for silver. Got two silver Washingtons and a silver Roosevelt. Also got a piece that may be silver. Just ordered a silver test kit off ebay.
Also got a Parker pen. After looking on ebay, it looks to be a Vacumatic Fountain Pen. Looking through, some of these look to be just gold plated, but others have some solid gold. If there a definite way to know for sure? The clip part looks solid on the outside, but underneath looks a little spotty. The band looks to be solid. The "nib" (I believe that's the pointy bottom thing that writes) looks solid gold, but the very tip is a white metal. I would say at least the band and nib are gold, but am a bit skeptical because it's not marked 14k, etc.
Some of these pens look to be worth a few bucks (not in dug condition). 1) Is it worth trying to have it restored? and 2) how can I know for sure if any of the components are solid gold?
HH all!
Also got a Parker pen. After looking on ebay, it looks to be a Vacumatic Fountain Pen. Looking through, some of these look to be just gold plated, but others have some solid gold. If there a definite way to know for sure? The clip part looks solid on the outside, but underneath looks a little spotty. The band looks to be solid. The "nib" (I believe that's the pointy bottom thing that writes) looks solid gold, but the very tip is a white metal. I would say at least the band and nib are gold, but am a bit skeptical because it's not marked 14k, etc.
Some of these pens look to be worth a few bucks (not in dug condition). 1) Is it worth trying to have it restored? and 2) how can I know for sure if any of the components are solid gold?
HH all!
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Comments
I dug a silver mechanical pencil a few weeks ago.
The nib is 14k gold (it's probably not marked, but is solid gold). Not sure about the other fittings, but my guess would be that they're gold plated or filled.
It's probably not worth spending money on restoring it, unless it happens to be a particularly rare model. For display purposes, I'd think it would clean up fine with an ultrasonic cleaner.
There's a mountain of info available online. Here are a few links:
Lots of detailed info on the Vacumatic range
Details on nibs
Nibs: gold or not?
Determining the date
-Z
Sorry for the delay. I moved last week and am finally getting things in order. But still plenty of boxes to empty out. I believe this is a WWII pen as it has the plastic piece shown in one of the links. Will have to do some more research.