I have a couple of Pentel PMG pencils and I’m wondering if perhaps the clips might have been switched before I acquired them. One pencil has “PENTEL JAPAN 12” in the cavity and nothing imprinted on the clip. The other has “Pentel JAPAN 17” in the cavity and PENTEL on the clip. Are the clips correct for these pencils, or does the PENTEL imprinted clip go with the PENTEL imprinted pencil body?
What year (or year range) did Pentel change from using all caps to just the first letter being capitalized?
Any info/insight would be much appreciated. Thank you!
The pencil with the PENTEL on the barrel doesn’t have the clip with PENTEL on it. But, I’m going to switch them and put it on there now.
The later model (which had the PENTEL clip) has a 1976 date code. The two pencils have different internals with the earlier having to be unscrewed from the tip side.
Here are a couple quick pics of the disassembled pencils.
From what I understand, the Gold ring was originally for the overseas market and the Red ring was for the Japanese Domestic Market. I don’t believe the Gold ring lasted out of the 70’s.
The one marked PENTEL JAPAN 12 was the first version of the PMG, with the reservoir screwing in from the front, that came out in 1970. It probably should have the other clip on it.
I doubt that it had more than a year or two of manufacture before they remade the mold and went to the rear drop in (much easier to manufacture). Unfortunately the pencils were not dated before about 12/1975, so we don’t have hard dates for that period.
The clip with the Pentel down the front, and nothing on the “wings”, was used starting in 1965 (on the Graph, I believe) up to 1970 or early 1971. Pentel changed their logo in late 1970, and officially changed their name in 1971, so that is when the new clips started to be used (it is still in use today).
I seriously doubt that it was used up to 1976, so that clip was probably switched at some point.
Thanks for all of the input! I don’t have many Pentel pencils where PENTEL is in all caps. It seemed strange to have the clip be different than the body, so it feels good to have them reunited.
It really wasn’t unusual to have the clip with the PENTEL on the clip and the body having the newer font, if it was around the beginning of the '70’s, but 1976 was way too late. It is unusual to be the other way around (signs of the clip being swapped).
The P200’s started out with the newer font on the body in 1970, but used the older clip.
