2-Place Medal Bars for Junior Officers with the EK2 Equivalent for German States

[ww1czechlegion]

Hello,

I wanted to show my continued progress towards completing a goal of having 2-place medal bars for Junior Officers with the equivalent of the EK2 for the various Imperial German States. I've been working on this set for the past 2-3 years, giving up chances on acquiring more Pickelhaubes than I have in order to try and complete this collection. Most of these are far cheaper to collect than their pickelhaube equivalents, and easier to find than many of the smaller states/principalities haube. :wink:

Some of these are very, very difficult to find in 2-place medal bars (some of the principalities, etc., and the fact that many Junior Officers won more than just 2-medals: the Iron cross 2nd Class and their own state award for a medal bar mount). It's far more common to find these medal bars in 3-place configuration with the Hindenburg Cross of course.

Never say never, but I'm not holding my breath to find a Schwarzburg-Rudoldstadt /Schwarzburg-Sonderhausen or a Waldeck 2-place medal bar with the EK2 on it, simply in a 2-place medal bar configuation. Most likely I'll have to settle for multi-piece medal bars for these two tiny entities.

I took liberties in breaking my 2-place medal bar rule with the Hohenzollern medal bar and the Schaumburg-Lippe medal bar in that neither of them are in 2-place configuration. Again, both these entities are probably nearly impossible to find in a lifetime of searching, in the 2-place configuration.

Best Regards,

Alan

 

[J.LeBrasseur]

very nice Alan!

James

 

[Sandmann]

Indeed, a nice collection for 3 years :bravo:

 

[dick roback]

I saw this display at the St. Paul show, just a fantastic display of 2-piece medal bars!! Nice job Alan. Cheers Dick

 

[kaiser]

Those are al very very nice pieces great display by the way

Jonas

 

[b.loree]

Very,very cool Alan, a beautiful display and collection! Congratulations. :thumb up:

 

[badener]

I love this display Alan. I know how frustrating it can be to find just the right award.

 

[SkipperJohn]

Gorgeous collection.

John :bravo: :bravo: :bravo:

 

[kaiserwilhelm2]

=D>

 

[KAGGR#1]

I really like your collection and the way that
you have the display laid out
Very nice .
How did you get the idea ? Started with a couple , then wanted to do them all ?
Steve McFarland

 

[pickelhauben]

I agree with the others.

Very nice indeed !

 

[ww1czechlegion]

I restored the photos to this thread today, as I just realized that the photo links were broken for whatever reason, apparently after the last forum upgrade.

Best Wishes,

Alan

 

[Steve Nick]

Alan:

That's a terrific display. With the exception of the Iron Cross most of these medals are all but forgotten.

Love the Hanse groups and the Baden Order of the Zahringen Lion. Beautiful groupings.

Thank for sharing them.

 

[ww1czechlegion]

Many thanks Steve! I appreciate it!

 

[ww1czechlegion]

Well, I am down to 1-medal bar set that I'm looking for to complete this display set. Will I ever find Waldeck in 2-place? I'm not holding my breath, lol. I've seen only a handful of multiple place bars for sale over the years, but never jumped on one to buy it, unfortunately. It's been a few years back since I've seen the last one come up for sale.


And I'll admit out of honesty that I swapped out the original Schwarzburg Silver Merit Medal for War that came on that bar, with my Princely Honor Cross 3rd Class with Swords, in order to create this display. Same ribbon for both awards, obviously. The medal attachment system easily enabled the swap. Whether or not someone could have actually received such an award with "jumping over" the Silver Merit Medal for War, I honestly don't know, and stand to be educated on that point by anyone who knows for certain. I don't expect to ever find another 2-place Schwarzburg medal bar in my lifetime, even with the Silver Merit Medal on it, it's likely never going to happen. They just never show up. There were just too few of them awarded that likely survived and might come up for sale.


This is the more "eye candy" display of my two sets, probably one of the few of this sort that exists in the collector world realm. I count myself very fortunate to have been able to assemble it as far as what it exists as at this point of time...


Best Wishes,


Alan

 

[ww1czechlegion]

I have recently found the last medal bar to complete this Junior Officer Set. This Princely Waldeck Cross was awarded only 580 times in WW1, and 4 times before the war. Those low numbers make for it to be a very difficult one to find mounted on a medal bar.

I did not attend the 2023 Show of Shows, but I was able to make arrangements to purchase this medal bar before the show, and my oldest friend brought it back to Iowa for me.

 

[Zebedeus]

Outstanding collection, Alan. Medals collection isn't my focus but you have some exceptional an rare medals hard to see nowaday. Really a top quality collection. Congrats.

 

[ww1czechlegion]

Thanks very much Zeb, I appreciate it!

I am happy to be finished searching for these.

 

[ccj]

Very nice