Question regarding Unamarked vs. Marked EK's by Juncker

[Panzercracker]

Hi all. With regards to unmarked vs. marked EK's by Juncker, I think we've all seen variations with and without the L/12 stamp, whether "full" or not. My question is were all "unmarked" pieces made before '41 before the LDO stepped up the quality control? Or did Juncker start placing the L/12 stamp on Crosses that were "exceptional"? Can someone also explain the variations on the width of the flange? Juncker must have played with ideas alot, even the "finishing" on the pointed edges varied as well as the thickness. Maybe I missed a thread that explains all this, but if someone's got a "nutshell" explanation, I'm all ears. Thanks in advance.

[Douglas 5]

Hi :
In regards to : " Were all unmarked crosses made befor 1941 ... ".... Well the answer to that is no . Generaly speaking - Juncker EK1 and EK2s were made right up the bombing of the plant with no PKZ marking of the 2 . Juncker did not use their PKZ number much at all ... only for a short while on their Knight Crosses . The LDO marking L/12 was mandetory .

Douglas

[Panzercracker]

Hi Doug. As far as Knight's Crosses, the marks of L/12 and the lazy 2 were mandatory. What I'm curious about are the L/12 stamps you sometimes see on a few variants of the EK1 (ie. the "full" Juncker and the W&L + Juncker frame types. Both have can be found with or without the L/12 stamp. Is it possible that some crosses received more attention than others? Or was the L/12 stamp a randomly done factory thing? Just curious....

[Douglas 5]

It is not the case - that a few crosses got more attention than others . Award pieces you got unmarked or with a PKZ number . Private purchase crosses had to be marked with the LDO number . Just do to the volume of EK2 crosses being needed ... alot of them generaly did not get their rings stamped . As said Juncker did not mark their award PKZ crosses .

Douglas

[Panzercracker]

Thank you Doug. Now, you woke up my memory. The awarded pieces (EK1) were unmarked and the L/ marking were for sale if the awardee wanted a back-up piece, or if one got lost.

[streptile]

The lack of "2" marked EKs is something of a mystery that I don't think anyone knows the answer to. In theory, any cross made for private purchase after about March 1941 should be marked L/12, and any for award purposes should have been marked "2" after the middle of 1942. The logical conclusion would be that Juncker went out of business between the founding of the LDO and the founding of the PKZ, but the facts don't really bear that out, as the "2" mark was used -- just never on EKs as far as we know.

Thus an unmarked Juncker could be an award piece, or an early private purchase piece. It is usually possible to estimate a period of production by the core and the frame, as the timeline of Juncker production is fairly well established, at least in my opinion.

THIS thread will give you a refresher on the LDO and the PKZ.

[Panzercracker]

Thanks for the "refresher". I will have to re-read it a few times before I can absorb it. It's been a while since I followed and much more has been added. It would be great to see a "visual" on how Juncker's EK1s and EK2s evolved, but you can't have everything. Back in the 90's, compared to now --night and day.