Big nibs!

Here are a few large gold 19th-century dip pen nibs. Then as later, indication of size by number was not standardized: the smallest nibs are the #12 Foley on the right and the slightly larger #8 Morton to its side, while the largest are the #8 and #9 nibs in the center. Note, too, that the Foley nibs are dated -- a practice which likely originated with nibmaking pioneer Levi Brown, but which was only sporadically followed by other nibmakers (John Foley being one of the few to embrace it consistently).

The picture below gives a better indication of scale. The small nib underneath is a standard Waterman #2 from the late 1930s.