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    Imperial Austrian Military Merit Cross


    Noor

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    It's an interesting piece indeed (hopefully not a piece from which the KD was filed away...). We can consider it as a "Vorlagestück", since this class, as said, was never awarded. Most of the pieces remained, shortly after WW1 were melted in order to obtain precious metals.

    Some pieces of such non-awarded types (both 1st and 2nd classes) survived the post-war emergencies and now are highly appreciated from collectors.

    E.L.

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    • 4 weeks later...
    • 5 years later...

    Hi Gents

    just found this great thread ...,

    I'm hopefully going to be the proud owner of my first 'cross for military merit'.

    I have just taken a chance on a bar containing this. I've not received it yet so still sweating on whether it is going to be as expected.

    any obvious problems Gents??

    IMG_3286.PNG.236c0b394dc8e0bc904150410d510836.PNGIMG_3287.thumb.PNG.6ae6439f3b144fe4bf0c3068934e22c0.PNG

    tony

     

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    On ‎09‎.‎10‎.‎2011 at 22:03, Iver said:

    ..there was no II. Class MVK without War Decoration awarded as far as I know..

    Only one award is known to

    Feldmarschallleutnant d.R. Karl Edler von Strasser, commander of the Militärakademie Wr. Neustadt

    on  19.12.1915 [PVBL. 215/1915]

    But Strasser already owned MVK III./KD therefore he would have worn an MVK II./KD III.

    Following the Personalverordnungsblatt für das k.u.k. Heer (Landwehr and Honved included) there were (minimum number) awards:

    MVK II./KD: 166 (until establishing the swords, some swords awarded later to them)

    MVK II./KD/Schw.: 147 (after establishing the swords)

    An interesting detail: GdK Fürst Schönburg-Hartenstein was awarded MVK II./KD on 20.4.1915 and MVK III./KD/Schw. on 1.9.1918. Therefore he would have worn MVK II./KD/ and "Schwerter niederen Grades"

    Not included: k.u.k. Kriegsmarine (if there were any?) and awards by Heller-Kommission after WW1.

    And very important: not included awards to foreigners (they were not published in PVBl.).

    Regards

    Christian

    Here a MVK II./KD/Schw. nied. Grades

    0075-MVK II + KD + Schwerter 3. Kl. avers.jpg

    Edited by Christian1962
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    Here a late war case for MVK III/KD/Schw. from Köchert, Wien:

     

    0062-MVK III. Kl. mit Schwertern Etui oben.jpg

    0062-MVK III. Kl. mit Schwertern Etui unten.jpg

    Here a nice example for a "Kleine Dekoration zum MVK II./KD/Schw. with luxury case and owners inscription on backside:

    008b - MVK II + KD + Schw. - Kleine Dekoration avers.jpg

    008b - MVK II + KD + Schw. - Kleine Dekoration Etui.jpg

    008b - MVK II + KD + Schw. - Kleine Dekoration Etui unten.jpg

     

    And a "Kleine Dekoration zum MVK I./KD/Schw."

    0026-MVK III. Kl. mit Kleindekoration I. Kl. + KD + Schw..jpg

     

    And a MVK III./KD/Schw. three times awarded.

    Only 11 awards  from 22.7.1918 to 1.10.1918 in the k.u.k. Armee, k.k. Landwehr and k.u. Honved! 

    0050-MVK III. + 2 WH-Spangen.jpg

    Edited by Christian1962
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    10 hours ago, Farkas said:

    Hi Gents

    just found this great thread ...,

    I'm hopefully going to be the proud owner of my first 'cross for military merit'.

    I have just taken a chance on a bar containing this. I've not received it yet so still sweating on whether it is going to be as expected.

    any obvious problems Gents??

    tony

     

    Hi Tony,

    This is a nice Friedrich Rothe piece. I cannot see any obvious problems in these pictures.

    - - - - - - - - - - - - -

    Here is a picture with three similar cases but different producers.

    3-dob-nyitva-1200.thumb.jpg.688dca8bedf7ca0b6cc64d55331df1ae.jpg

    And one more picture, perhaps a bit artistic composition with two Rothe & Neffe pieces.

    kompozicio02-1200.thumb.jpg.ddf8d893f80e6d6e556c2fe0dc1937d6.jpg

    Regards,

    cimbineus

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    10 hours ago, cimbineus said:

    Hi Tony,

    This is a nice Friedrich Rothe piece. I cannot see any obvious problems in these pictures.

    - - - - - - - - - - - - -

    Here is a picture with three similar cases but different producers.

    3-dob-nyitva-1200.thumb.jpg.688dca8bedf7ca0b6cc64d55331df1ae.jpg

    And one more picture, perhaps a bit artistic composition with two Rothe & Neffe pieces.

    kompozicio02-1200.thumb.jpg.ddf8d893f80e6d6e556c2fe0dc1937d6.jpg

    Regards,

    cimbineus

    Hi cimbineus 

    thanks for the maker ID - much appreciated

    and

    and loving for the pics of your own. Fantastic.

    tony

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    • 3 months later...

    Dear fellow collectors

    I think it has become time for me to make some contributions here. Firstly here is my Military Merit Cross 3rd class with wardecoration with a miniature for the cross 1.st class attached. Secondly my small bar with an Iron cross 2nd class and a MCC 3rd class, also with wardecoration. Both my crosses are manufactered by ´FR´, Rothe from Vienna.

    Kind regards

    20180121_105856.jpg

    20180121_110006.jpg

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    • 5 months later...

    Hi Gents

    i just got this one with a nice bar I bought, it has a nice little extra loop so i’m not taking it off the trifold....

    here are a couple of pics

    id enjoy opinions on originality and of course another makers id if possible please gents?!?

    A0FC20EE-BCE7-43D5-BD62-A6F4CAF1D7E1.thumb.jpeg.0ce674a5b5026e95e5ceb44c2c627ef2.jpeg

    D7941408-BE06-4E7A-B4EA-4A15B8AD5C30.thumb.jpeg.be793826e5e19aad2b3094a2e66f55fe.jpeg

    EB68BC10-6A71-4C0C-B948-AC7BE588B6E1.thumb.jpeg.d34096862db0ff74f849e4a18c56b030.jpeg

    EE45C5A7-5A30-4317-BE1E-D5463C2320AF.thumb.jpeg.9baf3ffb06a1b3ec7e2e0ef9ee990958.jpeg

    850E9E94-3F5A-4DAF-BA2C-64DB9E98DFEE.thumb.jpeg.7912d7953a200066f53fd9aefb540d17.jpeg

    A85DDAA6-D3BD-4B5E-BB48-B8DA01BC53E4.thumb.jpeg.53f16e7c9ed4393eca887d2c049c53d8.jpeg

    39E136F1-7F84-4FE0-8FFB-3945FF1C9047.thumb.jpeg.b0098ed19948c9b6cd7d36027e036d74.jpeg

     

    Hope you like

    tony

     

    PS

    i posted the first i asked about last time in the German awards section because of the bar so here it is again....

     

    On 24/10/2017 at 23:50, Farkas said:

    Hi Gents

    My new bar... 

    Austro Hungarian is my first love so I couldn't resist this.

    possibly.... this is glaringly wrong to you more knowledgeable Gents.

    Would an MM cross be awarded without lower level bravery awards first?

    don't spare my feelings if you have doubts - I genuinely would rather hear your thoughts Gents.

    i won't lie... i paid out 250 plus post for this. Think it was a bit cheap? And I didn't know enough about it either, not enough to justify getting it - but - it didn't stop me, and, with mixed emotions I did...

    You Gents know the feeling??

    that "gulp" feeling...??

    ---////------/--

    So when it turned up I wanted to know :

    was EK maker marked? Looked too crisp and new.

    was the Military Merit Cross genuine ?

    was the bar good quality ? 

    Was the bar original?

    and if so had the original medals been swapped out?

    And so on

    and so on !!

    and then so on!

    -------

    Some pics first then my thoughts on it....

    IMG_3325.thumb.JPG.eb994f674f11f7a8439229b57be520db.JPG

    IMG_3326.thumb.JPG.1fc35dec4dee85e2e14f87ccafc971d2.JPG

    IMG_3341.thumb.JPG.95f963ad842fa3d84c484f733451e316.JPGIMG_3426.thumb.JPG.2a8fb20656288f6788a7e436fae4da56.JPG

    IMG_3299.PNG.26bf403013fa0ce072855f25b8c73926.PNG

    IMG_3315.thumb.JPG.5979f4c2851a2c46f2ccf769720de4c8.JPGIMG_3316.thumb.JPG.679be7780ba3cf23236d8a6faae5154f.JPGIMG_3332.thumb.JPG.457310ca1d92c51cda271a49f16e0872.JPGIMG_3333.thumb.JPG.02d2fc4d5fcbb1150676bdd5f35943e5.JPGIMG_3336.thumb.JPG.ef7226b36cbdc2840a04903255c72a0d.JPGIMG_3337.thumb.JPG.e590c65fa251b048eed403831c06d73c.JPGIMG_3342.thumb.JPG.94395742ca9495c1bbde0f4064ced5e2.JPGIMG_3298.PNG.75db8be22210a6f62e1f16b471c50d01.PNGIMG_3339.thumb.JPG.37234dab95a87cb71b43a8f09c4b1487.JPG

    IMG_3322.thumb.JPG.1196b90256ab57f56c3658c785035e91.JPG

     

    ---/----/-//-----

    to me, the quality of the medal mounting/bar is top notch. ( hope not too good?)  it is so rigid still. The folds do not move. It's thick, padded, uv negative and just a few stitches snapped to rear.

    I can't get to the ring of the MM cross without stressing the ribbon and cannot see how the award isn't original to the bar.

    Fellow Gent cimbineus has told me that at first glance this MM Cross looks good, a Friedrich Rothe made example.

    I had to (had to!) check the EK ring. It was tricky to prise the ribbon of the Iron Cross from the ring. I was relieved to see a mark (800?) (silver) I  haven't poked any further yet... The ring is blackened, in contrast to the medal which now appears to have been cleaned, rather than new. The ring is small though - not the size I have on others or personally seen before..  that worries me slightly - should it? I hope to hear its because it's on a later bar and not period ww1 issue!? Or other similarly reassuring reason!.

    So Gents

    after my longest worded post ever (usually 3 words) I hope you like....

    tony

     

    *************

    Musketier Kessler

    Inf Regt 400

    2 komp

    *************

     

     

     

     

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