As I've written here many times over the years, I enjoy fountain pens. They give a better writing experience and can be both cheaper and better for the environment than ballpoint or gel pens, which are usually bought and thrown away as soon as they run out of ink.

I thought my pals at #silvergoldstackers might be interested in this. It's not a gold coin, but there is some gold here.

Here is my favorite pen:

This is a Pilot Custom 823. That nib you see is 14k gold, which makes this pen a little more valuable than the regular everyday pen. Gold in fountain pens isn't just for bragging rights, it makes the nib softer than if it were steel, which makes it more pleasant to write with and is why most nibs in higher end pens are made with gold.

I've had this pen for over ten years. These days it retails for nearly $350, but when I bought it, the price was only slightly over $200. Inflation has really affected things. The price of gold has almost doubled in that time, and I imagine the other materials have also increased in cost a lot.

Many people who get into fountain pens turn into collectors and start buying lots of pens and inks. It's kind of like watch collecting, I suppose. I don't go for that. I do have a few different fountain pens, but only a few and none of them except this one are expensive. Nor do I collect inks. My last bottle of ink was ¥1500 (about $10), purchased three years ago, and I'm only half way through it despite writing several pages with this pen daily.

Many of my Hive posts actually begin life with this pen, written out in my notebook longhand. You may think that's crazy, but writing by hand is a great experience. You can't edit, you just keep writing instead of worrying about rephrasing things or marking things up or all the handful or things that nag at our mind when we are typing in a word processor and distract us from actually writing. It is this reason that famed author Neil Gaiman writes the first draft of every book by hand (and with a fountain pen).

To go back to the silvergoldstackers angle, if the price of gold just skyrockets and I find that I can sell this for a lot of money, that would be a tough decision. I get so much joy writing from this pen, and I hope to pass it down to my kids someday. Hmm... if both kids get into fountain pens, I might be in trouble. Rather than selling this, I might have to buy a second so I can pass one down to each of them!

Anyway, thought some of you might be interested in seeing the pen I use. I've talked about it many times over the years, but I don't think I've ever taken any photos of it. One of these days I'll have to get my hands on a macro lens so I can take much better photos of it. Until then, enjoy these!

David LaSpina is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku. He blogs here and at laspina.org. Write him on Twitter or Mastodon.