On February 28, 1903, a life savings medal was issued by Duke Georg von Sachsen-Meiningen for those being brave and firm enough to rescue somebody out of the peril of death while endangering themselves. So the original phrase of the issue document. The number of awards of this rare medal is published in F. Beyreiß's book, "Rettungsmedaillen Deutscher Staaten 1782-1918", 2006, page 169 as a total of 66 between 1903 and 1918. The very first award took place on July 28, 1903, the last one on September 28, 1918.

 

The medal was coined from silver and worn on a white ribbon framed with green stripes. the tooling was cut by Alois Börsch working for the Munich Mint (Münchner Hauptmünzamt).

 

Based on F. Beyreiß's research only 71 examples were coined and delivered to the Saxe-Meiningen orders chancellery:

 

in the year pieces
1903 20
1906 20
1912 20
1916 5
1917 6

 

The following medal bar contains such a rare life savings medal on the fifth position:

 

 

 

The original bearer of the bar could not been identified so far. The bar itself represents in any case a very long carrier under several different rulers. Due to the number of Saxe-Meiningen medals one has to assume that the recipient of all those decorations had to be a Meiningen native. The police long service cross from the III.Reich period and that Military Long Service Cross 1st class for NCO's and enlisted men puts light on the fact that he was part of the Gendarmes corps of the three Saxon Ernestine duchies.