The Pelikan 120 was introduced in 1955, initially as a 'school pen'. The early pens were stamped with a unique code, 'FA43' in this case. The company rightly assumed that the pen would sell well to students, and the code would be very useful in a classroom situation where a number of identical pens would be in use at the same time.
Finished in green and black with a Gold plated nib and longitudinally grooved feed, the pen has been serviced and is in excellent working condition, the gold filling on the Pelikan 'beak' clip has held up very well.
The pen features the very efficient piston filling system, first seen on the model 100 in 1929 and still in use today. It takes up a good volume ofink, the level can be seen in the transparent green ink view window.
The gold plating on the nib is intact and in good condition, the nib delivers a smooth, fine line, well suited to smaller handwriting.
Pelikan took the 'school pen' idea very seriously, reasoning that a good exprience wit a Pelikan pen at an early stage may well produce a generation of pelikan users in later life. To achieve this the 120 had to be a good pen: robust, efficient, and attractive.
The early Pelikan pens have become quite collectable and are regarded, by man,y to be superior to the modern versions.