Reading your pen's batch code
Under the barcode, a line of characters gives the month and year your pen was made. How to read it, and what it doesn't tell you.
Under your pen's barcode, there's a small line like 0622MGSH0121CN. That's the batch code. It gives the month and year the pen was made.
Four parts
The batch number, then MGSH, then four digits, then CN.
Only the four digits after MGSH matter
The first two give the month, the next two the year. 0121 means January 2021.
Watch out for the trap: the batch number at the start is not a date. On a cropped photo, don't mistake it for the month.
It puts the versions in order
The bamboo panda of EP0001 exists without a tail and with a small black tail on the back of the cap.
The tailless ones we've recorded all come from batch 1486MGSH1223CN: December 2023. The ones with a tail come from batches made between April 2024 and July 2025.
Same goes for the EP0009 astronaut: its three versions follow one another in date order.
What it doesn't tell you
Not the release date: a pen goes on sale after it's made, sometimes months later. The EP0011 bunny, made in November 2021, came out in March 2022.
Nor when or where it was sold, or which variant you have. For that, look at the star or logo mark and at the cap.
