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.
