Just a Curiosity

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This is one of those that takes you a minute to figure out what isn’t quite right about it:

Red hard rubber, gold trim, like this one . . ..

But the color of the trim is a little different . . . and even the tip is gold (Eversharp didn’t do that - the tips were always left plain steel regardless of trim configuration).  Besides, this one is in a “working togs” configuration with a plain straight top and exposed eraser.  It should look like this:

So is this a rare variant?  I doubt it.  Up close, you can see that the plating isn’t what you’d expect to see on an Eversharp - even though the underside of the clip is plated, there’s enough blemishes to suggest this wasn’t done at the factory:

Still, it seems like the long way around the barn, unless someone really wanted gold trim, had all the plating equipment you need, and went to all that trouble just to avoid spending a few extra cents to get the higher end model. 

All I can say is that it was curious, and it was an Eversharp . . . my eyes were wide open and it didn’t cost too much.