single mount 25 year service medal

[rabaduex]

Saw a single mounted 25 year Prussian service medal gilded bronze pinback on a dealer's site.  Isn't this unusual for the veteran to mount just this award and wouldn"t he have some other medal during his service? 

[laurentius]

Dear rabaduex

It's not that unusual, contrary to what we think even the famed officers of the prussian army (for this moment not counting the NCO's and the navy personell who also received this prussian LS award) weren't always given orders. If a certain officer didn't take part in any action (regular colonial stuff or perhaps a war) the chances were quite slim for him to recieve an award. We collectors sometimes forget it when we see dozens of pictures of generals with high orders that a normal colonel had to work his ass off for 20 years before even getting a RAO.

Kind regards, Laurentius

[redeagleorder]

With a 25 year service award I would expect at least a Centenary Medal to go with it. 

 

[laurentius]

Dear redeagleorder

I don't think there has to be a Centenary medal with it, often a prussian LS award is combined with a Centenary award, but not always. If the owner of this LS award joined in 1898 and retired in 1920 he would have 22 years of service plus 4 years (war service counts double) and he would have his LS award, and no centenary. Taking part in the world war is also not a guarentee for a decoration. Only a third of the germans troops in WW1 got an iron cross.

Kind regards, Laurentius

[VtwinVince]

Officers didn't always mount what they were entitled to. I had a Schnalle with the 1870 EK2, Officer's LSC and an RAO.

[redeagleorder]

On 09/01/2019 at 14:26, laurentius said:

Dear redeagleorder

I don't think there has to be a Centenary medal with it, often a prussian LS award is combined with a Centenary award, but not always. If the owner of this LS award joined in 1898 and retired in 1920 he would have 22 years of service plus 4 years (war service counts double) and he would have his LS award, and no centenary. Taking part in the world war is also not a guarentee for a decoration. Only a third of the germans troops in WW1 got an iron cross.

Kind regards, Laurentius

Dear Laurentius,

I am aware that it would have been possible to qualify for the 25 year service cross without the Centenary Medal in the fashion you have described, and that not all German soldiers qualified for war medals. However, in the case of an officer, with a considerable length of pre-war service, no war decorations over four years would have been somewhat unusual. 

Nonetheless, although without pictures it is impossible to confirm, I would have little doubt in the item being original (if nothing else, fakers surely have better things to do than fake single mounts for relatively common medals). He could indeed have drawn the short straw and missed out on any other awards in his career, or perhaps he was a career sergeant who was bumped up to officer rank in the waning days of the war.

On 08/01/2019 at 21:36, rabaduex said:

Saw a single mounted 25 year Prussian service medal gilded bronze pinback on a dealer's site.  Isn't this unusual for the veteran to mount just this award and wouldn"t he have some other medal during his service? 

Dear rabadeux,

Could you clarify your use of the term 'pinback'? Are you referring to the needle arrangement on the back of the single mount or something attached to the medal itself? If the latter, it cannot be the same medal you describe, unless it has been heavily altered.

[rabaduex]

Sorry, a poor choice of words on my part.  Yes, it has the typical needle arrangement.  I must have taken the dealer's description  too literally.   Bob