Those who know about Ambidex will know what I'm talking about. For those who don't, when the Ambidex was first produced the original trial version had several features which distinguished it from later ones. These early reels were individually hand numbered with hand engravers in batches of 200. No idea how many batches. They were given a number in four places. 1. inside the RH removeable side plate. 2. Inside the body. 3. On the inside face of the gear wheel of the main handle shaft ( so not visible without striping this component out of the reel). 4. On the rear faace of the flyer (also needing complete removal of the internal gears, locknuts and flyer assembly.)
I have previosly owned two of these reels and know where to look and what to look for.
The reels can be spotted quite easily as 'possibles' because the main handle shaft has nuts at each end instead of the more usual spacers and screws. This is because the ends of the shaft have a male thread on them whilst later reels all have a female thread inside the ends of the shaft.
also the body of the reel is painted in the wrinkle finish paint wwhile the flyer was smooth finish, both black only.
My present reel is suspect because it only has numbers in the places I mentioned 1. and 2., but not in 3. or 4.
Also the number is greater than 200.
It is not known for a fact exactly how many batches were numbered. It is entirely possible that workers got a bit lazy towards the end of producing these first type reels and just numbered the two easiest to get two places.
I'm sure our own Ambidex man who is the expert will have some imput.
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