August 2017 – Nimrodd's Blog

Back in January or February of 2017, I was doing research on Pentel pencils and came across a website (I have since lost the website) that was a catalog listing of office supplies available (looked to be a wholesale distributor site). They had 4 P209 pencils I had never heard of.

In April 2017, I was referred to a website (www.ipenstore.com) where I purchased several of these pencils.

These are the Metallic P209s that have been released in the United States.

P209M-KX Metallic Blue Green

P209M-NX Metallic Graphite

P209M-PX Metallic Pink

P209M-ZX

One thing I wish that Pentel would do, is to standardize the color codes for their pencils, as it would make cataloging simpler. For example, the Metallic Graphite is different for the 3 different sizes that have been released. They are P205MNX, P207MN and now P209M-NX. The Silver (with Black text) are P205-MZX, P207Z and P209M-ZX.

This post is about the standard 0.9mm yellow pencil and the changes it has gone through since 1970 or 1971 when it was released.

Generation 1b (Short Tip)

This is a very recent acquisition from March 2017 and in most respects is a standard Generation 1b pencil (see next pencil). The major difference is the short 2mm guide pipe on the tip, as opposed to the standard 4mm guide pipe. Up until this point, I believed that the only tip available for the 0.9mm pencils was the standard 4mm tip.

Generation 1b

This is the standard Generation 1b that I have seen. It has does not have the P205 molded into the cutout (a characteristic of Generations 1 & 1a of other models). It also has the 0.9 m/m printed on the bottom, with no other printing on the pencil. I picked this one up in September of 2016.

Generation 4

This is was the first older P209 pencil I picked up back in 2012. I got it because of the obvious difference in the text (m/m vs. mm in the size). This was before I started identifying the different generations of pencils.

Generation 4.5

I got this pencil in a batch of pencils I purchased for other reasons in May 2017. When I was buying the batch, I did not know this was anything other than a Generation 5 or 6, due to the text on the side. At that time, I did not know that the P209 had any of this generation. When cataloging pencils into my database, I take them apart and identify all of the components of the pencil. When I opened this one up, I was surprised to see the inner body with a brass spring cap. This has happened a few times when I purchase batches of pencils, and it is always enjoyable to find something you don’t have like this.

Generation 5

I picked this pencil up in September 2016. When trying to get specific generations of pencils, it is sometimes hard to tell online from the pictures, as they either are not a high enough resolution to see the mark in the cutout, or to see the bottom of the pencils in other cases.

Generation 6

This was the first P209 pencil I got when I started collecting mechanical pencils back in 2009. At this point, I do not know where I got it from, only the date, as I did not keep that information at that time, and I cannot find any e-mails concerning this purchase.

An interesting thing about this pencil (as well as my first Generation 6 P203E, P205A & P207C) I just noticed in the past couple of weeks, is that it is of French registration. The barcode for this pencil is 3474372209007, which is an IAN-13 barcode that is registered to EUROPENTEL SAS in France. As I say, I don’t know where I got this from, it is just interesting that it ended up here in the US, instead of the US barcoded pencils.

Also, as you can see, I skipped over Generations 2 & 3, as those are ones I am still looking for. I also do not have Generation 1a, but I don’t know for sure if this model exists.

Month: August 2017

P209 Metallics