The country on the clip band can be used to help date the pen. Does it actually say 149? Did I just inherit a Montblanc 149!? When it came into view, I did a double take. I rotated the pen in my hands and looked for the model number on the cap band. It was big! At this point in my collecting, I’d never actually seen a Montblanc in person, but I knew where to look for the model number. Once I recovered from the initial shock, I took it out of the box and looked at it. But then I opened the box and saw the white star on top of the cap! My heart skipped a few beats and I had to set it down, as I instantly became worried I’d drop and break it. So, with some intrigue but little hope, I took the pen box from her to see what was inside.Īs I pulled the pen box from the outer sleeve and saw “Montblanc” stamped into the top, I still thought that it was probably just a Montblanc box with some other type of pen inside. She handed me a pen box in an unmarked cardboard sleeve and said, “I think it’s a Montblanc.” “Ha,” I thought to myself, “she probably just heard that name somewhere and said it because it sounded familiar.” My grandfather worked at a bank but wore overalls at home and loved to go fishing, so he wasn’t what I would consider to be the Montblanc type. Later that evening she said that she had found his pen! I always try to keep my expectations low when someone says that they have a pen for me, as I am always overjoyed to receive any pen that was owned by someone I know, regardless of how “valuable” or “rare” it is.