Waldeck Golden Merit Medal with (silver) swords

[KeithB]

Waldek Golden Merit Medal, but the swords which are attached are silver in color. In every reference photo I have found the swords are always golden. Above the silver swords is the expected golden-colored ring.

I would appreciate opinions as to whether the swords could be original to the medal or whether this one has been messed with.

Thanks in advance,

Keith

Edited August 6, 2006 by KeithB

[eitze]

Hi ,

all gold pieces I know do have also golden swords

So perhaps someone thought a golden medal with swords is better than without!

But as we know, the one without swords is more rare than with .

Numbers from the Efler book:

- golden medal .....265

- same with X ......412

So remove the X and you have a lttle treasure

Here you can see my X-piece.

greetings

eitze

[camelneck]

I recently saw a silver Waldeck Merit Medal for sale that looks identical to the Golden Waldeck Merit Medal shown in the previous post by eitze (minus the swords).  (I'm assuming the reverse side of eitze's medal contains the words "Fur Verdienste" and nothing else.)  

Despite the lack of swords, the silver medal that I saw was suspended on the same white "war ribbon" as the one used for both the Waldeck Silver Merit Medal with swords and the Waldeck Golden Merit Medal with swords (see Eitze's photos).  It was my understanding that both silver and golden "Waldeck merit medals without swords", were suppose to be suspended by the peacetime ribbon which looks identical to the ribbon used in conjunction with the Princely Reuss Silver Medal of Merit.  (This ribbon is yellow-orange in color with red and black stripes.).

I've looked everywhere, but I cannot find a silver Waldeck Medal that looks like the one that I just described.  Every photo that I have seen of the Waldeck Silver Merit Medal has the initials "G V" with a crown on top of the initials.  According to Volume 7 of O'Connors "Aviation Awards and the Men Who Earned Them", Georg Viktor (GV) was the reigning prince of Waldeck when the silver merit medal were first issued.  However, when the golden merit medal was issued a few years later, Friedrich was on the thrown.  This explains why the "GV" initials on the silver merit medal were replaced by a golden 8-ray star with the cross Moline of Pyrmont in the center.

As for the silver medal that I saw, has anyone else seen a silver merit medal that has an 8-ray star with a cross Moline in its center on its obverse side as opposed to the letters "GV"? 

David