The RAREST!!!

[JensF.]

This one is from a friends collection.
The 1st class with swords AND crown was awarded only about 175 (!) times to Faehnriche and Feldwebelleutnants.
It is one of the rarest Imperial awards of WWI.

[Rick Research]

This is indeed a RARE beauty. The M1913 1st Class was only given to the rank class of Feldwebelleutnant and equivalents--mostly qualified physicians who had no prior military service or to very rear area administrative Beamten.

I have had 3--and still have 2--of the MVK1X without Crown, and consider myself lucky to have found those, since there were probably only about 700 of those.

Hopefully Michael Autengruber's phenomenal WWI awards rolls volumes will eventually get to these.

Since most of the Warrant Officers who were eligible for this class were in their late 40s or into their 50s, I think combatant awards rather than those on the war merit ribbon would actually be scarcer. Never have turned up an award document....