Cased Iron Cross First Class Spange – Mayer

Product Description: This cased Iron Cross First Class Spange is a beautiful, tough to find gem. The Spange is a high quality piece. It’s made of Tombak. The obverse shows only very light wear, and retains nearly all of the beautiful silver finish. There is some slight, typical age toning. The reverse is flat and smooth, with a light, old patina. There is no maker mark, but this variant is known to have been produced by the firm of B. H. Mayer in Pforzheim. The hardware is classic Mayer throughout, with a block hinge, broad pin, and round wire catch. The pin functions as it should, and there is no damage and no repairs. This attractive award is housed in a scarce original case. The lid of the case features a nice representation of the award, imprinted in silver foil. The case is in very nice condition, with virtually all of the original surface intact on the exterior. There is no fading and only extremely slight and minor signs of wear. The push button shows some rust. Inside, the Spange is nicely displayed on a black velvet insert. The lid lining and hinge cover are intact, with some age toning. This is a great example of a cased Iron Cross First Class Spange. The condition rates as excellent overall.

Historical Description: When Adolf Hitler reinstituted the historical Iron Cross decoration on September 1, 1939, he also instituted a special new award, the “Wiederholungsspange,” to recognize people who had earned the 1914 Iron Cross during WWI and whose actions in this new war merited being awarded the Iron Cross again. There were two different patterns of this Spange, for the First and Second Classes of the Iron Cross. Both of them took the form of a German national eagle and swastika emblem, with outstretched wings, over a bar with the date “1939.” The First-Class award had a pin attachment or screw back, to enable it to be worn on the uniform pocket over the 1914 Iron Cross. Some combo-type awards are also known, with the Spange fastened to the top arm of the 1914 cross. The Second Class Spange had two or four prongs on the reverse and was affixed to a length of 1914 pattern Iron Cross ribbon. Most of the Spange awards were made of a brass alloy (Buntmetall) with a silver finish, while late war examples were produced from zinc. As with most German combat awards, there were many variations of the Spange produced, including miniature awards for the ribbon bar.

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