Duke Ernst Medal, 1st Class with Swords

[Dave Danner]

From the Duchy of Saxe-Altenburg, or Herzogtum Sachsen-Altenburg, comes this decoration, the Duke Ernst Medal, 1st Class with Swords, or the Herzog Ernst Medaille 1. Klasse mit Schwertern. With only 86 awards, this pinback cross was one of the rarest awards of World War One. It was established shortly before the end of the war, on June 29, 1918, with 44 being awarded on October 17, 1918 and 42 a few weeks later, on November 9, just two days before the Armistice.

I tried to make the scan as large and detailed as possible without being so large it would take forever to download. I scanned it first using my default settings and you couldn't see the maker's mark. Now that is fairly clear.

[Dave Danner]

Here is the reverse. The badge is slightly larger than a 1914 EK1, measuring about 46mm, or 1 13/16 inches, across.

[Brian S]

Never seen this, nice.

[stogieman]

Nice!

Very nice (and exceptionally rare) item Dave!

[Eric Stahlhut]

Yes, quite nice!

Who is the maker? I think Claudio has one of these as well.

[Klaus O.]

Dave,

Very nice piece indeed! You have the images of mine on your (I just edited it, made a "gaffe" and wrote "my website"... sorry! It must have been some sort of psicological lapsus from my part) website, too... like Eric said. It looks identical. Maybe the little maker's mark on the obverse of the medallion on the left near to the head seems to be more detailed and profound than mine.

ciao,

Claudio

[Dave Danner]

I think the maker's mark is HM for Hauptmünzamt, but (a) I'm not sure and (b) even if so, I have no idea whose central mint. Altenburg's? I doubt the duchy was large enough. Attached for comparison is the mark of the Bavarian Hauptmünzamt in Munich.