Saxon St. Heinrich Medal-Bar

[JensF.]

Hi,

I've got this new medal bar with a Silver Medal of the Saxon Militaer-St. Heinrich-Orden. It was the highest gallantry award (with the golden medal) a saxon NCO could get up to 1918.

[Rick Research]

Nice bar! These high bravery awards do not get any easier to come by any more and with the way prices seem to be going... (I had one, but I sold it! )

An interesting thing about the Saxon Gold and Silver MEDALS of the St. Henry Order-- unlike virtually all normal German mounting precedent, these were considered of equal ranking with the Order itself, and were worn AHEAD of the Saxon Civil Merit Order and Albert Order even when both of those had swords.

This is because the heroism being rewarded was rightfully considered more important than the recipient's rank at the time of award.

The Saxons were also unusual in that they rewarded brave deeds with decorations matching the action. That is, someone who performed a magnificent act of courage did not just get an EK2 if they had not been decorated previously. There were exceptions, but we're talking about the Pinnavcle here--the Saint Henry awards!

[McCulloh]

Very nice. There were only 8,300-9,000 of these awarded?