The House Order of
Ernestine does have several attributes for several
award occasions. Besides the typical swords for war
merit, the year date for home front war merit was a
further variation that was scarcely awarded.
The idea for an award for Home Front Merit was born in the
autumn of 1914 and put in place immediately. As a visual
sign for this particular kind of merit a year date was
attached to the upper cross arm of the decoration. For
awards made during later war years, the year dates were
attached to the upper and lower cross arms. The date
could be awarded within all classes of the order as well
as to the merit cross. Needless to say, this award
was given out rather scarce and is therefore very had to
find in all classes. The year date application itself is
finely coined and detailed, as shown in the picture below.
As the letters E, B, and F that
characterize, among other details, the 1st model of this
order, the year date is attached to the cross arm in the
exact same way. Original pieces have little pipes
integrated into the enamel through which the year date is
attached to the cross (see the round pipe opening behind the 4
in 1914).
For Sax-Coburg-Gotha, the following number of awards were recorded (1914-18)*:
Grand Cross
2
Commander 1st Class
3
Commander 2nd Class
24
Knight 1st Class
45
Knight 2nd Class
71
Merit Cross
22
The year date for home front war merit was
awarded differently in Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.
Not just the 1914 was added to the top cross arm, but
also the actual year date of the year of the award was
added to the lower cross arm as shown in the picture
below. Nimmergut's opus magnum records only six total
awards of the 1914 / 1916 combination.
*Max Hans, "Die Orden und
Ehrenzeichen von Sachsen-Coburg-Salfeld und
Sachsen-Coburg-Gotha 1689-1935", Eigenverlag 1986
