Crosses and a side theme!

[Dansson]

I have decided to make a different thread today,
I got some beautifully Jeweler repaired EK2's from my friend today (Kay) and a big thanks to him!
The Jeweler repaired EK's are marked FR and HB and they have been repaired professionaly By a jeweler, and what makes this an other beautiful story is that instead of buying a new one, the owners have been so attached to their original EK that they repaired it.
Proud soldiers!

Some of you might wonder the medal in the middle and what is is doing there.
The medal is from the Finnish Freedomwar/civilwar 1918 where Germany helped Finland to gain independence. The medal is a Freedom medal 1st class made of Silver and awarded for extreme Bravery in battle (A finnish counterpart for the iron cross for enlisted men and NCO's).
It was given to me by my greatgrandfather personally a few months before he passed away and it belonged to his Uncle.

The reason I added it on the photos is because it is now the time of October when he passed away the year he died, and it did fit in very well in with the "wounded" iron crosses, because he himslef was a World War 2 veteran with serious wounds and disabled for life.
It is more like a memory of him and to honor the memory, because this is the only thing besides the memories he left to me.
His own warmedals are in the possession of my relatives.


I hope there is something for everyone in this thread!


Best regards from a collector,
Daniel

[Dansson]

Hb

[Dansson]

FR marked cross.
It has a really well made repair which is absolutley beautiful!

[Montgomery Burns]

the first time I see the medal ,,

do you have closeups in daylight ?


regards kay

[pzrwest]

A fitting tribute

[Dansson]

Thank you!

Kay,
I took some close ups today with my phone camera, but
unfortuanetley they are with Artificial lightning.
I can try to take later pictures with natural light if the Sun is still high enough here when I am home

[Dansson]

Here is the Makermark, silvercontent mark and the "year stamp".
The medal is a Finnish award (Freedom medal/Medal of Liberty 1st class) for extreme bravery in front of the enemy 1918.
It is made of 813H silver,
Manufactured in Sweden 1918 (swedish year stamp for 1918 in Silver is Q7) and made by Sporrong & Co.

Why is it made in Sweden can be a question that you might wonder,
So here comes the theory/explenation.
Finland was in 1918 when the Freedomwar/Civilwar broke out only a few months old.
The country was divided in "Whites" and "Reds".
The whites were supported by German forces and some got training from them and German forces also helped the whites in the fighting by providing a few divisions to participate in the fighting.
As the country had recently declared independence 6th December 1917 and the political instability that followed, they couldn't hire any company in Finland to make them, so Sweden was a natural choice and signed the contract to make some of the awards.
Interesting fact for imperial collectors is that some also were made in Germany.

[Valter Gorenc]

Excellent thread and pieces! I really like the repaired crosses, they have much more spirit than mint, never awarded piece. And Finnish medal with family provenience is great, and fits nicely into the grouping. If I'm right, these were awarded to Germans too? It's amazing how many different theatres fought and how many rare or at least unusual awards a WW1 German soldier could get.

[Dansson]

Excellent thread and pieces! I really like the repaired crosses, they have much more spirit than mint, never awarded piece. And Finnish medal with family provenience is great, and fits nicely into the grouping. If I'm right, these were awarded to Germans too? It's amazing how many different theatres fought and how many rare or at least unusual awards a WW1 German soldier could get.

Yes,
a German could get it too!
I have also seen medalbars with a bunch of Finnish awards and the iron cross last on it which are more uncommon.
Usually awarded to men from the Jägerbattalion 27 which consisted onmy of Finns.

The guy who got this medal had at least 2 other medals,
The comemorative medal of the Freedomwar 1918 (Germans could get it too) and the 2nd class Freedommedal 1918 because we found in the commanders dayily orders a mention of him getting this award on the last days of the war too.

The other awards are lost, I happened to find this once in my "family houses" attic and only found this. Gave it to my Greatgrandfather who was able to tell me the story of the man, and just before he himself passed away he gave it to me.
This got me into collecting also.


Best regards,
Daniel