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Sovereign

Maker: SheafferYou may be looking for a different model of Admiral, depending on vintage; there is the Balance, the Touchdown, or the Snorkel version to consider, only the last of which I’ve examined.    This page refers to the Triumph era version.

More correctly called the Sovereign II at the start of the run, since Sheaffer did make a rare effort to differentiate between this and the Balance pen of the same name, but it is seldom called by its full name.  This is, as far as my limited abilities allow me to discover, the lowest-cost of the pens to bear an actual Triumph point, and the only difference between it, the Admiral, and the Craftsman is the point itself.  South of the joint, they’re all the same.

The last year or two of production saw the Roman numeral drop off the name, and the Triumph was traded for large masked open point. This degradation was balanced out by the application of a broad band similar to the one seen on the Statesman, although it was actually a little wider.

Production Run: 1942 – 1948.

Cost When New: $8.75 (for modern value, try this calculator).

Size: 12.9 cm long capped, 14.4 cm posted, 11.2 cm uncapped.

Point: 14k gold Triumph with platinum mask.

Body: Celluloid until 1947, then Forticel.

Filler: Vacuum, capacity approx. 1.2 ml or lever,  capacity approx. 0.9 ml.

Sheaffer Soveriegn II, black lever filler. The similarity in the cap between this and the two lower-cost pens in the line-up frequently leads to this being called a Craftsman. Note also that this has an somewhat unusual combination of signed clip AND white dot.

In the final year of production, the Statesman shifted to this open-point which would continue into the Touchdown

In the final year of production, the Sovereign shifted to this open-point version; I have previously misidentified this as a Statesman through lack of reference material and the fact that the Touchdown version of the Statesman has essentially the same trim.

 

 

If you are relying on the preceding information to win a bet or impress a teacher, you should read the site’s scholarly caveat. Remember, this is the internet, and it’s full of bad information.

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