Stogieman

If I remember correctly, there's less than 250 Double medal winners. Makes for a narrow pool of recipients and hikes the rarity scale through the roof. I've only ever found one double ribbon bar, one double medal bar. I've only seen fotos of one more in a collection in Germany. (The owner likes to tease me and every month or so eMails me photos of some of his stuff..... how mean can a guy get?)

Hi Jason, I never knew for sure, but it came in together and I hate breaking things up, even packets. I suspect you are probably right. The mark is for the Prussian State Mint... but I do not know if they made WB's

I have always thought this to be one of the most attractive of the bronze vet awards. Nice to see so many nice examples!

Hey Mike, welcome aboard!

Christophe! Bienvenue!

Hi Jason, welcome aboard!! The red packet is from something else, remember?

I have a question..... were there not different grades of this cross, or was it strictly a Neck Order? I'm not saying the one Robin shows is legit.. but my initial impression is this would have been (1) a medal bar piece, not neck order..

(2) A spangen-stuch strictly for the medal bar??

The number struck in the back looks remarkably correct for other Friekorps pieces I have seen, but I'm pretty thin on experience in some of this stuff "between the wars".

OK, that's all from me for now. I have many variations of the above. Does anybody have any different examples of other medals in packets? Thanks!

Saxon Friedrich August Medal in Bronze. Silver came this way as well. Both of these could also be "Private Purchased" from Scharffenberg (Dresden) in at least 2 case styles.

Prussian Wound Badge in Black

Prussian Iron Cross, Second Class. These blue packets can be found with a multitude of ink-stamped (usually purple) maker marks. Including "K", "W", "S&W", etc.

Oldenburg Friedrich August Cross, Second Class. They don't get much minty-fresh than this one was!

One of my Favorites! The Lippe Cross for Bravery, Second Class. This one is very hard to find!

Hessian General Bravery Decoration in the issue packet. For some reason, this one is actually easy to find!

The Hungarian one is infinitely harder to find... a plain brown packet, no title, no marks, but with the "Legitimization" paper and a maker note inside!

Let's not forget the Commemorative Medals... Here's The Bulgarian WW1 Commemorative Medal in the wax-paper issue packet!

And later, when the Brunswick "Front Fighter Clasp" was issued, it arrived like this!

Here's one from Brunswick for the Ernst August Cross, Second Class:

(EAK2)

Here's one from Bavaria for the Ludwig Cross

I've always been fascinated with issue packets, boxes, cases and such. Some of the rarest Imperial items are the little paper packets medals arrived at the front in. I would venture that 99% of these were instantly tossed!

Here's one from Baden for the General Bravery decoration on the Farl-Friedrich Ribbon for Bravery.

Here's a close-up of the maker's stamp! :excl:

The cross was neatly packaged in this little envelope with the maker's name stamped on it! We never knew who made these until this one arrived! The boxes never had a maker mark! There was also this neat little safety pin!

I was pretty surprised when this one showed up. Just like it was the day it left the Jeweler! Inside were 3 pieces of ribbon. Full-sized, Miniature for Lapel Bow and 15mm. for the ribbon bar!

Boxes for The Hanseatic Cross of Hamburg came in 2 sizes. here's the 'shorty' one.

My absolute favorite is still the double St. Henry Medal ribbon bar..... think extreme bravery.......