Vermeil crosshatch grid detail

 

Earliest example of the vermeil engraving with content noted that 5% by weight is 14K gold fill.  

The tassies of this pen were flat.

 

Later example of the flat-top vermeil omitting the content of gold used for the gold fill.

The tassies of this pen were mostly flat, but a few do exist with dished tassies during their transition period.

 

Last version of the vermeil 75 pen with the 22K gold applied via electroplating method.  Simply has "USA" inscription, not "MADE IN USA"

The tassies of this pen were dished.

 

Update of March 28, 2004

I found another variant, this time on a dished tassie vermeil 75 FP.  This one is a bit of a contradiction.

This inscription would seem to fit chronologically after the earliest version with the inscription Sterling & 1/20 14K G.F. because it drops only the 1/20 designation while retaining the CAP & BARREL U.S.A.  If this were the case, we ought to find more of these on flat tassie pens.  In spite all that I have seen,  I have yet to see this inscription until now.  The mystery here is that this pen came with the later dish tassies.  How very odd!

My guess is that Parker considered to make this the official inscription and even made a few caps inscribed this way.  Then they had a change of mind and decided to expand from U.S.A. into MADE in U.S.A and ended up with the middle of the three inscriptions pictured above with STERLING on top of 14K G.F.   Except for very few, perhaps these caps with the mystery inscription were not put into production.  Then years later during the transition period to the dished tassie and the latest 22K gold electroplated cap marked Sterling Vermeil, they accidentally used the unreleased cap.  Or, perhaps they ran out of the second version with Sterling & 14K G.F. which we know was used with dished tassies.

If you know of what really happened please let me know by sending me email.