medalnet

Excuse my slip up. I meant to type: Zimmermann

Only the golden one:

Here is a picture of type c):

Well, there are four different designs in total. a) same as your but not enemaled on the center awarded up to 1849 b) yours c) so called Commander Star with golden rays. Similar to your design, but fully white enameled and golden rays inserted within those cross arms. This one was awarded between 1911 and 1918 d) Commander Star with crown. It is basically a 4 pointed star with a crown attached to the top of the star. These are rare.

This is the model was awarded from 1849 on. The particular piece arround the, maybe slightly before the century change.

It is the twin brother of:

Since you guys are on the topic of Hohenzollerns with swords. Check out what the postman delivered last week:

The reverse picture you are showing shows a light indentation on the lower cross arm. This normally indicated punch marks. I would be surprised if this one has no markings.

Unfortunately not.

I am sure you have, Red Eagle Oak leafs are exactly the same then PlM oak leafs.

No, and I have never seen any.

Super, I was looking all over the place to find one better than the one I have on my page right now. Do you mind if I would use it for my web page? Andreas

Check it out, probably the nicest Pour le M?rite from before 1916 I have seen: More at: www.medalnet.net Pour le M?rite with oak leaf awarded to General von Quast

Isn't the last ribbon a ribbon for something from Nassau?!

The reverse is the same. Maybe it is Austria?

Does anybody know what this is?

Variations are OK in this case. They awarded more then 10.000 of those crosses.

Holly Cow....that medal bar would be the collectors dream !!!!!

Here may be another clue to the identity of the recipient. Obviously he also received the officer cross fo the Phillip order.

Yes

That is it!

The left star was offered in auciton 26, the one on the right in auction 34. Compare the star bodies and you may find that they are the exact same pieces. Somehow the swords changed from the original Saxon swords to some look like Prussian swords. Well, that is just my humble opinion.

You are very close

I used to love those puzzles when I was a little kid. Remember, you were supposed to find the 5 differences. A German auctioneer has just reinvented the game for medal collectors. The original is on the left side as usual: Actually there is only one difference.

The cross is indeed a very good reproduction. Certainly cast from an original. As mentioned before, the comparison has to be perfect, except that the tooling flaws will get worse and worse towards the end of the war as seen in the "T" in "Verdienst". If you look especially at the crown it is evident that your cross is cast from an original. The pebbling on those crown brackets are smaller then on the original and are therefore a clear sign of the normal shrinkage occurring during the casting process. Other signs apply. One has to always make sure that the piece is coined and not cased. Please check my web page at www.medalnet.net and read up on those few signs that will make it easier to determine whether a piece is coined or cased. As I had mentioned before, one has to have this kind of cross in hand to be 100% sure. It looked very good on those initial photos and convinced even me enough to possibly order it with the right to return the piece. You may download pictures of an early MVK in high resolution here: MVK picture I MVK picture II Both files are bigger about 14.5 MB, so make sure your connection can handle it.