Stogieman

Now, a third example. Again... mint/un-mounted. Note the ribbon in the case!

Here's a late-war, stone-cold mint example of the Saxon-Altenburg Bravery Medal:

Greetings. The ribbon on your cross could be used for a Saxon-Altenburg Bravery Medal, or a Saxon (Kingdom) Long Service Medal and/or cross. However, you will often see it used as a substitute for the correct ribbon. Here's an example of a stone-cold mint set with the correct ribbon shown. Note the size of all the stripes:

Thanks, never seen one of those. Ever. Fantastic.....

Alex, did you mean Fourth Class? The addition of the crown denotes an additional, or subsequent award of the same grade of each class. i.e. a second award. "sub-class" isn't really the appropriate word in english. (I know, a second language for Miguel?) Example: a Captain receives the MVO4wX (Fourth Class with Swords) for an engagement. A month later he is awarded the Fourth Class a second time... He would be required to turn in his existing Fourth Class award. Upon receipt, they would issue him a Fourth Class award with the crown. Rick Research actually has paperwork from the Bavarian Orders Chancelry that addresses this very practice!

Still wonderful. I wonder if ultimately these will be researchable. There must be records somewhere about who received what. The other thing I like very much about the bar is that it is on the plastic holder. Are the ribbons painted on as some of the Soviet awards were done?

Thanks Gentlemen, this should give Miguel and anyone else with an interest a lot to absorb & learn. Now that's what it's all about! Cheers!

I honestly don't know Saschaw, the Sax-Coburg medal has an entirely different pit to it from the one shown by Miguel. The Baden medal looks an odd color to me. At this point, anything that falls outside the realm of "flawless and/or textbook" makes me have serious questions.

Here's an example of the Third Class Cross on the Beamter Ribbon. Also, it would be a second award, with crown.

Thanks Ed, that listing is perfect! Miguel. That link will give an awesome breakdown of classes, types, numbers awarded. My posts will give you some basic visuals to get you started.

The Bavarian Milit?r=Verdienst=Orden gets a little more complicated. I don't have many images to show as this gets very scarce and very expensive outside of the bottom grade of Fourth Class. This Order adds flames between the arms of the cross, post 1905. Ribbons remain the same as noted above for Fourth and Third Class. Never seen the neck crosses, but I would assume the ribbons repeat that of the lower orders. The Order also adds a pin-back Officer's Cross that is drop-dead beautiful to behold.... Here's an example of a Fourth-Class Order, peace-time on the statute ribbon:

Sorry, took a few moments to create. Here's a panorama of various grades of the BMVK Far left is the Model 1905 Cross, then First through Third Class (Left to right) Far right, scarce fine zinc cross.

Bavarian Milit?r=Verdienst Kreuz (1900-1905) Blue enameled silver cross, no flames between the arms. Enameled center (black) with Gold "L" cypher for King L?dwig surrounded by white enameled ring with motto Merenti. Swords were established late, but were a strictly "private-purchase" item prior to 1905. Only one (1) grade of the MVK as noted above. Bavarian Milit?r=Verdienst Kreuz (post-1905) Third Class-Copper Colored Cross (Note-some third classes were issued late in 1918 made out of fine-zinc) Second Class-Silver Cross, White/black enameled center, obverse First Class-Gilded Cross with white/black enameled center, obverse. This award comes on the statute ribbon-white with two equal, deep blue stripes. If awarded for war-merit, swords may be given. Ribbon changes by the addition of two black stripes outside the blue, blue stripes are narrower. A third ribbon for "Beamter" uses the statute ribbon with a large blue center stripe, 2 thicker black outer stripes. First Image-MVK pre-1905 Second Image-MVK3wX, post 1905

Petr, Outstanding bar. Did you get documents too?

Is that a Fifty-Year LSC?

Again, each piece shown has problems. I would leave them alone, but we each make our own decisions.

Despite being very crude to my eyes, despite the fact that I don't collect Yugoslavian... it still has a visual appeal. It looks like a very heavy piece.

Looks like pure fantasy to me. Certainly not any sort of official badge of the period.

Yes, but it is still a rather scarce case.... to a Bavarian collector, well he would buy it just to get the case!

Yes, it was sarcasm. Why would you buy a piece that you will not be happy with in the long run? Cheap is nice, but cheap will never appeal to you over time. My advice would be to spend lots of money on one piece. Not lots of pieces for the same money. So, you buy it. It's not an issue piece. Someday you will want to upgrade and get a better piece. Then you're stuck trying to get rid of something you really didn't want to begin with. Probably, no one else will want it either. So why buy it in the first place?

Doesn't look like an issue piece. It's probably a copy. Might be a "wearer's copy" but why bother?

Well, in the first picture.. it states "KO Mark"... but that's not the mark on the pin. The pin is marked "S-W", for Sye & Wagner. The case is almost certainly a reproduction, based strictly on the image shown. I'll bet parts of it will glow under a UV light. The core of the cross is broken at the base/near the center of the top arm. It appears that the pin hinge and clasp have been replaced. The cross itself might be real, but the pictures are so shoddy, why bother? It's easy enough to find undamaged specimans of both "KO" & "S-W" crosses. Why roll the dice on a "maybe"?

Clearly a custom-made piece... but when was it custom made?

Now this is interesting... comments, thoughts??

Outstanding Civil bar in remarkable condition. From the recent Kube auction perhaps? The Mecklenburg Merit Medal is almost impossible to find in a mounted group. Beautiful!