Back in 1993 I found a Victorinox display board in a sporting goods store that was going out of business. It had a single Soldier model attached. I bought it for $5 without the box or papers. It had the hollow rivet for attaching a lanyard and a "91" stamped on the tang of the blade signifying production in 1991. Since I had seen a few Soldiers lately with 1993 stamped on the blade and no hollow rivet, I emailed Switzerland and asked what was up! I received a nice response from a lady in marketing that stated in an effort to reduce the cost of these knives to the Swiss Army, they Swiss Army had dropped the requirement for a lanyard attachment. I told her I was coming back to Switzerland on the next plane because the training areas for the Swiss Army should be littered with lost pocket knives. She agreed.
I still have my 1991 model and won't part with it for anything. Some similar Victorinox knives have the keyring attachment, and this is better than nothing, but a good stout pull on the lanyard (like having it snag on something while exiting a Bradley or something) could pull the ring apart and you could still lose your knife.
...so if you can find a Soldier from 1991 or earlier, you have a find! The Wenger knives probably saved money somewhere else to continue to provide the "bail" on their Soldier models.
