In 2003 the Montblanc Copernicus was released as a Patron of Art edition in two variants (4810 and 888). Even the first photos convinced many collectors: the barrel (though the thick silver rings were not to everyone's taste), the mother-of-pearl star – still something special at the time – and above all the nib with its engraved yellow sun made the piece a highlight. More than one collector even sold off other writing instruments to be able to afford the Copernicus 4810 and pre-ordered it immediately.

On opening the packaging, however, many were in for a surprise: in all photos online, on the Montblanc homepage, in the brochures and even in the service booklet, the sun on the nib engraving was rendered in yellow (gold-plated); what was actually delivered, however, was a nib whose sun was platinum-plated and only the outer rim gold-plated – exactly the other way round. A silver sun looked not only counter-intuitive but also visually much less appealing.

An enquiry with the Montblanc hotline yielded the response that on all nibs of this edition the sun was platinum-plated and the rim gold-plated. Asked why brochures, service guide and homepage showed exactly the opposite, the answer was that this design change had been made at short notice once the brochures had already been printed; a reason for the reversal of the gold-plating, however, was not given.

Only later did the trade reveal what had really happened: a Montblanc employee allegedly had not read the design specifications correctly, so that all nibs were plated incorrectly. This was reportedly only noticed once the entire production was already faulty – too late for a correction. Astonishingly, the deviation apparently went unnoticed by anyone during production.

Two to three years after release, a Copernicus prototype with the originally intended (correct) nib – sun in yellow, rim in platinum – was auctioned on eBay France. The price achieved was significantly above the regular edition level. Montblanc, incidentally, took several years to bring the photos on its own website in line with the nib variant actually delivered.

Further information and pictures of both variants can be found on the overview pages of fountainpen.de:
• fountainpen.de/patron-copernicus.htm (Copernicus 4810)
• fountainpen.de/patron-copernicus888.htm (Copernicus 888)

Further related pages:
• Patron of Art 'Marquise de Pompadour' (Ribeiro's previous edition): fountainpen.de/patron-pompadour-en.htm
• Overview of all Patron of Art editions: fountainpen.de/patron-en.htm