Dating a Cross Century, roughly

[Cuppatea]

Just bought an old Cross fountain pen in an antique shop. I'm new to Cross. Gold plated F nib. Can anyone help with the date, approximately? A clue: there is a full box of cartridges with a price of $1.25 penciled on. The booklet order form says same box for $1.00.

There is a box but no outer sleeve.

thanks!

[Penguincollector]

I would say it’s ‘80s to early ‘90s probably. 1984 was when they reissued a fountain pen (for the US market, not sure about elsewhere) and they changed logos and box designs in the ‘90s and then again recently. What color is the box cover?

[Cuppatea]

Thanks! Here is the box. There is a small round silver sticker on the end with F in red. 

Edited November 22, 2023 by Cuppatea
Add info

[Penguincollector]

My Century’s box is really similar and it’s from the mid ‘90s. 

[Cuppatea]

Thanks!

 

[Penguincollector]

Anytime, sorry that it can’t get more specific. Cross doesn’t do date codes.

[rff000]

It looks like a dead ringer for my original Cross Century, bought somewhere in the 80's from the fountain pen counter in a JC Penney's store. Here is a photo. The dent in the barrel was caused by my driving over it in my 1969 Plymouth Valiant. Cross replaced the broken parts but left me the memento of a dented barrel. Note, not a "Classic" Century and not a Century II, but just a plain old Cross Century.

[Cuppatea]

Thanks, rff000! That is good info too. Thanks to everyone.

i just got an ink order from Appelboom. I don’t think I described above how this pen wrote, i.e. not great. So I ordered Cross ink, and the Century loves it! Also, it is archival ink. I'll try it in other dry fine nib pens...when my other 25 pens now inked run out...

I know this isn't the best pen ever, but I do like it. Pleasant to write with.

[rff000]

The one caution with this pen is to be careful with the trim ring right below the nib and at the top of the section. I never used cartridges and only used ink converters. But, I used to dip the pen in the ink with the trim ring also dipped into the ink. Gradually ink started to seep in and my fingers always got ink stained from touching the bottom of the trim ring when using the pen. I first thought it was a leak from the feed or the converter but I eventually got all of the ink out from under the trim ring and I never dip the ring in ink anymore. This can get tricky and one way to deal with it is to fill the converter separately and then re-attach it. No more leaks from under the ring since I solved this. I read of a lot of people that had this issue and just gave up on the pens, thinking that they were defective.

[dadbar]

I had a similar Cross Century in the mid to late 1980's- it had the same case.

 

Don't even bother using those cartridges. I've found that Cross cartridge ink works horribly in these pens- use the converter with better ink