L 59 faulty pin recall :
Project 1 :
L59 Rettenmaier is one many companies that produced LDO crosses for private sale - mainly EK1s - and is known for having a lot of small extra marks as well . Because of the complexity of this maker and all the marks I had to split this into different projects , those will be part of a seperate presentation later .
Rettenmaier had an EK1 cross exchange notification = a recall - ....to most of the readers this will be something new .
I obtained this EK1 1979 in Munich at a very scary meeting at the actual residence direct from the vet with an in error issued EK2 . Army Hauptmann at the time but did up go to Oberst . The recall letter I unfortunatly was not able to obtained as it was part of the large document lot that went with the fully decked 9 piece Parade uniform . A picture of the document with name does exist by another US collector which I happen to run into - but have not been able to obtain it again .
Reason of the recall/exchange was to replace the pin anchor , as their first one they used had a manufacturing flaw , where the pin would actualy break the anchor in half . As per LDO regulations they had to take them back fix/replace and be sent back . In the recall letter an option was given to send the cross back to them or direct to the Awards Co-op in Pforzheim with that letter , which ever the customer wanted . '0.1' Orden-Herstellergemeinschaft Pforzheim did a lot of repair work for Rettenmaier . An example is shown later .
The information obtained from the letter stated that the effects of this flaw starting to show up approximatly 2 months or so after the EK1 first being sold . They were very sorry and apollowgized about this . Rettenmaier in accordance with the LDO quality guidelines - had to take and took action to rectify this problem and tried to contact as many customers as they could . This included the Hauptmann as he had original contacted them - the company - so they had is name and address on hand - as he had put in a specialy tailored cross order for his EK1 . Further more it is mentioned in the first letter when he received his cross that it had a Silver Mark- the 'Diamond Mark' - that indicated that high grade 800/1000 fine silver and or silver parts were used in production of his cross in accordance as he had ordered it !!!
The number of still existing flawed crosses is not known , as no one now knows how many owners Rettenmaier was able to contact and or how many contacted them ! Over time , depending of use , the pin could break and some eventualy did later on . In the case of this one - the owner opted not to send it back as it was for his parade uniform to replace his issue 65 EK1 . Lucky for us this made the following presentation possible .
For the purpose of this demonstration/comparison I intentional took - and was fortunet to have - a very early unmarked 26 with their first pin set . As I remember from the recall letter - Rettenmaier refered to it as 'their pin set' that was faulty . The evidence in the comparison shows this first L59 pin set is not a BH Mayer pin set but a copy of such one Rettenmaier probably did themselfs , which in the end back fired as a costly mistake . Learning from this Rettenmaier uses from then on only pin sets produced by other makers which is quit evident !
At first glance one would think a 26 pin set . It is close in features but has signicant differences which are pointed out in the picture comparisons .
Please wait for additions and comments until after the 13th posting, thanks .
Douglas
First the cross in question :
Project 1 :
L59 Rettenmaier is one many companies that produced LDO crosses for private sale - mainly EK1s - and is known for having a lot of small extra marks as well . Because of the complexity of this maker and all the marks I had to split this into different projects , those will be part of a seperate presentation later .
Rettenmaier had an EK1 cross exchange notification = a recall - ....to most of the readers this will be something new .
I obtained this EK1 1979 in Munich at a very scary meeting at the actual residence direct from the vet with an in error issued EK2 . Army Hauptmann at the time but did up go to Oberst . The recall letter I unfortunatly was not able to obtained as it was part of the large document lot that went with the fully decked 9 piece Parade uniform . A picture of the document with name does exist by another US collector which I happen to run into - but have not been able to obtain it again .
Reason of the recall/exchange was to replace the pin anchor , as their first one they used had a manufacturing flaw , where the pin would actualy break the anchor in half . As per LDO regulations they had to take them back fix/replace and be sent back . In the recall letter an option was given to send the cross back to them or direct to the Awards Co-op in Pforzheim with that letter , which ever the customer wanted . '0.1' Orden-Herstellergemeinschaft Pforzheim did a lot of repair work for Rettenmaier . An example is shown later .
The information obtained from the letter stated that the effects of this flaw starting to show up approximatly 2 months or so after the EK1 first being sold . They were very sorry and apollowgized about this . Rettenmaier in accordance with the LDO quality guidelines - had to take and took action to rectify this problem and tried to contact as many customers as they could . This included the Hauptmann as he had original contacted them - the company - so they had is name and address on hand - as he had put in a specialy tailored cross order for his EK1 . Further more it is mentioned in the first letter when he received his cross that it had a Silver Mark- the 'Diamond Mark' - that indicated that high grade 800/1000 fine silver and or silver parts were used in production of his cross in accordance as he had ordered it !!!
The number of still existing flawed crosses is not known , as no one now knows how many owners Rettenmaier was able to contact and or how many contacted them ! Over time , depending of use , the pin could break and some eventualy did later on . In the case of this one - the owner opted not to send it back as it was for his parade uniform to replace his issue 65 EK1 . Lucky for us this made the following presentation possible .
For the purpose of this demonstration/comparison I intentional took - and was fortunet to have - a very early unmarked 26 with their first pin set . As I remember from the recall letter - Rettenmaier refered to it as 'their pin set' that was faulty . The evidence in the comparison shows this first L59 pin set is not a BH Mayer pin set but a copy of such one Rettenmaier probably did themselfs , which in the end back fired as a costly mistake . Learning from this Rettenmaier uses from then on only pin sets produced by other makers which is quit evident !
At first glance one would think a 26 pin set . It is close in features but has signicant differences which are pointed out in the picture comparisons .
Please wait for additions and comments until after the 13th posting, thanks .
Douglas
First the cross in question :
Comment