A zincky Imperial

[Eric Stahlhut]

I finally got around to obtaining one of these today. Swords and ring are iron. Ribbon is yellowing with age, but not seen in pic.

[Eric Stahlhut]

pest!

[Chris Wainwrigh]

I have two of these on medal bars but they are not zinc and the swords are nonmagnetic. Are the zinc crosses late war are post war

[Eric Stahlhut]

Late war. Germany began to run short on materials, so they started making these in zinc instead of copper-based alloys. Chris, the zinc one to watch out for is the version with crown and swords. It's rare.

[JensF.]

The swords are usually iron. Here is the cross with crown (swords are also iron; the crown could be from a second class it looks like silver plated "Buntmetall"):