So far the earliest date coded pens found have had the code NL for 1979, and all of these pens were made in the US. Using the words ' Quality pen', one letter per year, followed by a quarter marker, allowing for dating within a ten year span. It has been assumed that Parker began marking some of their pens on the trim or cap bands to allow for dating in 1970. In 1950 a new system for the date coding was introduced where the two digits only indicated the year, not the quarter hence '50' means made in 1950, this system was used in the US until 1955 and in Canada a few years longer. Also, since this coding system extended over a decade, a pen marked 38 could be produced the third quarter either in 1938 or 1948. Since production was overlappingĮxamples exist with either the imprint 28 or. The stamp initially had three dots and for each quarter one dot was filedĭown leaving none for the fourth quarter. Production time, and a new date code, using a system of dots, was adopted. In the second quarter of 1938 this system was however changed to save

Hence a '47' marking on a 1930's pen indicate that the pen was produced in the fourth quarter of 1937, not 1947, which is a common misconception. The first date codes, found for example on the Vacumatics, consists of two digits, the first one denoting the quarter of production, the second denoting the production year. Many imprints have been worn off with use.

In mid 1934 Parker began marking most pens and pencils with a date code, both the barrel and the nibs were marked, but lackingĪ date code doesn't necessarily mean that the pen was made pre-1935, since

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