Nah, just kidding. Well...maybe.
Anyway, here’s some old Atlas leads I recently acquired. Brand new old stock still in their original boxes. The leads are ‘super fine’ size, that’s 1.18mm diameter, which isn’t exactly super fine by today’s 0.3 and 0.2mm standards. There are 12 sticks per tube. The tubes are glass with black plastic stoppers.These days virtually all common thinner diameter lead refills are 60mm (about 2 and 3/8th inches) long, but you can also find 75mm and some other sizes.
Things weren’t so voluntarily standardised in the old days, when there was quite a selection of lead lengths. My two boxes are two of the common older lengths. The long ones are 100mm (4 in.) long, and the short ones are 32mm (1 and ¼ in.) long.
I like the idea of how the box for the long tubes has had its cardboard base cut and flaps folded in to act as dividers and protectors for the tubes. You can see the flaps between the tubes in the photo below.
“Atlas”, The Best Quality Refill Leads, Made In England.
My guess is that these leads are from the 1950’s - 60’s. There is a price marked on one box in pre-decimal currency. NZ changed from pounds to dollars in 1967 so it seems safe to assume the leads predate that. I have a gut feel that the plastic stoppers imply post World War II.
I like the looks of my PG1005. A serious no nonsense technical look that says this is the tool of a competent professional designer, yet with those long lean straight lines and black satin sheen finish it is equally at home in a business boardroom meeting. Classic style. A pencil for all situations.
In the hand the Graph 1000 is quite lightweight and neutral feeling.
The grip zone of the Graph 1000 consists essentially of a round metal pipe section with rubber inserts. The rubber inserts are rectangular with rounded ends, about 10mm long x 2mm wide. The insert sticks though to be slightly raised above the surrounding surface. When I say slightly I mean about 0.1 – 0.2mm. There are six inserts spaced evenly around the circumference of the grip, and three rows of inserts up the body. It is all black on black so a little hard to show photographically but I’ve mucked around with the photo below so hope you will get the idea.
We all know rubber grips are not my favourite but this one is an attempt to give the best of worlds - a rubber grip that isn’t too rubbery. It does work reasonably well, although I would suggest a little less distance between the rubber inserts might be an improvement. Seven or perhaps eight inserts spaced around the circumference rather than six.
Printed onto the upper barrel area is “GRAPH 1000 For Pro 0.5, Pentel PG1005 Japan”. I am always in favour of such clear full markings – no problems identifying your pencil make, model, etc. Convenient for people with hundreds of pencils!
Overall then this is an excellent pencil and a worthy addition to any collection. 
A different type of cool?
Somehow I suspect the Graph 1000 Limited is actually a Special Edition rather than a Limited Edition in normal writing instrument parlance. The term Limited Edition usually means a limited number of items will be produced, whereas a Special Edition usually means the item will be produced for a limited period of time without any quantity limit.
It’s 12ct rolled gold 95mm long mini pencil with tassel attached. “Rolled Gold Life-Long” is engraved into the top piece, and the instruction sheet clearly identifies it as Junior Cubic Model 3122. Overall, it’s quite an attractive little thing, for a golden-oldie.
Twist top screw mechanism with 1.18mm leads as one would expect. As usual, refilling the lead takes a tiny little bit of effort and mechanical aptitude.
Engraved rather badly into the body is the word “CANBERRA”. At first I thought this suggested it was probably a souvenir from the capital city of Australia, but I would have expected it to say Canberra Australia or something rather than just Canberra. When I took the photo of the engraving and enlarged it I realised that the bad engraving was actually because it was engraving over the top of some existing engraving. 
Beneath the letters NBER you can see the original letters THAY. Suddenly a light bulb turned on. The SS Canberra was one of the well known P&O Line cruise ships that sailed the Australasian route in the 1960’s to 80’s. Another P&O vessel was the lesser known SS Cathay, which was sold by a P & O subsidiary in 1978. So, I vote that originally this was a souvenir pencil for sale in the gift shop on the SS Cathay, and when the Cathay was sold, the pencil was re-engraved Canberra over the top. At least the first two letters match and by blacking in Canberra they hoped the THAY underneath wouldn’t be too obvious.
Here’s a recent acquisition. Sterling silver, 124mm long x 8mm barrel diameter. Twist tip mechanism to advance or retract the 1.18mm lead. It takes those old short style leads, 35mm or 1 3/8 inch long. For comparison, most modern leads are 60mm long. The main body is guilloche pattern engraved, which is a pattern I generally like. 
Overall the pencil is in pretty good shape, although it has a pinhead dent in the top cap, and the tip has a little bit of damage as if it’s been dropped onto a hard floor once or twice. But nothing to get too concerned about.
Again, at the risk of making a fool of myself, I believe the hallmarks on this pencil indicate it was made by E. Baker & Son (the E.B), and certified by the Birmingham Assay Office (the Anchor) as Sterling Silver (the Lion) in 1960 (the L in that specific font type, inside that specific shield shape).
Whilst some vintage silver can go for stratospheric prices, you can also pick up some great bargains, like this pencil. It weighs 29 grams, so taking a little bit off for the internal non-silver mechanism, let’s say there is 23 grams of actual silver in the pencil. At US $11.50 per ounce, that means there is about US $9.40 of silver metal. That’s its nominal value as scrap metal. Well it only cost me a couple of dollars more than that, including delivery. A pretty good bargain. 
The shop-ladies were nice and I had a few trial runs with some fancy pens and pencils. I was quite taken with the Montblanc Meisterstuck Solitaire Platinum-Plated Facet pencil, but then reality set in as the price tag had 4 digits before the decimal point. Still, nice to dream.
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