No. Until the early 1990s Montblanc was a full-range manufacturer whose catalogue covered everything from the plain school pen to the Meisterstück 149. Models such as the No. 38 ballpoint of the 1960s belong to the mass-produced end of that programme and not to the Meisterstück line, and they differ accordingly in materials and finish. On vintage pieces the brand name alone therefore says little about standing or value.

The practical snag is the refill: today's Montblanc refills do not fit these old bodies, which were built for a format long since abandoned. Replacements can only be had from old stock or by trimming another maker's refill to size. Anyone buying a pen as a present for everyday use is better served by a current model such as the Meisterstück 164; a piece from the 1960s or 1970s is really one for enthusiasts of the period.

As for fakes, there is little to worry about with models like these: counterfeiters concentrate almost entirely on the well-known current Meisterstück models, and plain workaday pens of the 1960s are hardly ever copied.