Grice & Young Golden Eagle
In the late 60s or early 70s Grice & Young started to manufacture another reel with a rim mounted ratchet lever. They attempted to reduce the overall weight by drilling out the foot and added additional holes to the spool faces, resulting in a reel of 290 grams compared to the already existing Gypsy D'or at 330 grams.
The rim ratchet was positioned in the same spot as for previously released Avon Royal Supremes , unlike the earlier Avon Crown that had the rim ratchet switch at 90 degrees from the foot.
In the late 1970s there were several models released with plastic backplates, including the one shown in the photos which is one of the very first of these with no strengthening added and so there was a propensity to warp. They were very light though and I use one with braid on it sometimes off the rocks. The following photo shows a clear progression in the strengthening of the backplate, culminating in the last of the reels which had the strengthening of the Matchmaker and is standard in even the most recent Shakespeare Eagles.
One of the bad points of the Golden Eagles were the model stickers, you rarely see one these days with the sticker intact. The plastic backed one in the picture for example is missing its model sticker, and the golden one, only just has its sticker still attached.
Apart from the ugly colour and extra holes, the Golden Eagles are excellent reels for Australian conditions. The plastic one pictured is excellent mainly because it's light but also because it's plastic and so a bit better in saltwater conditions. Otherwise they are very similar to the other G&Y reels.
The reels are a typical 4 3/8" spool diameter, 9/16" spool width and 3 5/8" arbour diameter.
They have a 2 way lineguard, usually consisting of two metal posts joined by a plastic bridge.
They weigh 290 grams for the early 70s metal and 270 grams for the late 70s plastic version.
As a guide, expect to pay anywhere between GBP30 and GBP80 for one of these. A mint one in a box may be worth as much as GBP100 for the metal ones which were quite common and more for the rarer plastic ones. Working useable eagles in average condition shouldn't be much more than GBP40