Often people describe a "first-year 75 FP" simply based on the presence of the a metal threaded section shown below.
While I agree that 75s with this type of section is an early version, I am not so sure the "first-year" attribution is correct. I believe Parker sold these pens with metal threaded sections beyond the first year of production.
It turns out there is actually a different attribute that appears on the very earliest 75 FPs and it has to do with the way the clip is accommodated on the cap. The earliest version has a notch cut out for the clip in the tassie itself while several months later Parker put the notch in the cap itself.
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Earliest version |
Later version |
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As an engineer, I think someone in production realized that having the notched tassie makes the FP cap assembly more difficult than necessary. Keep in mind that the clip has to have its arrowhead pointing down to the Parker name on the cap, and since the tassie is a screw, rotating it would mean the clip also rotates. Thus to tighten the tassie, the plastic inner cap would need to be rotated after the clip was fixed into the correct position. Even with a cap tool it is likely to be more difficult to really tighten the tassie by the inner cap.
By relocating the notch to the cap itself, the clip's position would be assured to be correct, relative to the Parker name on the cap. It would then be a simpler matter to tighten the tassie onto the cap while keeping the inner cap from moving.
I have no proof from Parker documents when this change in tassie and cap took place, but I am guessing this occurred within the first year of 75 FP production. Perhaps even within the first few months of 75 FP production. Clearly it required Parker to produce new tassies without the notch and caps with the notch. Suffice it to say that the 75 FPs with metal threaded sections and the early notched and flat cap tassie are more highly prized among collectors than the later flat tassies.
