Because old writing instruments fetch high prices, models from the 1930s and 1940s had already come into the counterfeiters' field of view by the early 2000s. The simplest procedure consists of taking any old writing instrument and fitting it with a Montblanc star. The characteristic imprints can be faked as well: replica stamps exist, in Germany as well as abroad, whose impressions correspond almost entirely to the original imprints. Some of this work is executed cleanly in craft terms, apparently by jewellers, and is correspondingly difficult to detect – the result nevertheless remains worthless.
A second ploy is so-called tuning. Here a genuine old writing instrument serves as the basis and is subsequently upgraded, for example by means of a silver overlay. This practice is particularly widespread with Pelikan writing instruments. Since the version thus created never existed ex works, it likewise constitutes a fake, even though the underlying instrument is original.