Gday lads
I found this in my gallery and wondered if it actually got to a thread from there in the past...



It is a brass cigarette case with a locking clasp and a mounted spring inside for holding the cigarettes. It appears to be a Iron Cross but not sure if 1st or 2nd class? Not my area of knowledge at all...
Cheers for any assistance.
Brad

Its an Iron Cross from WWI (the picture is a little bit dark, but you can see the crown above the letter W), but if first or second class, i can not say. Im not sure, but i think, that the classes differed only in their clasp or band.

Jan

Edit: Ok, it was a little bit dark, but now i can see it very clearly...i hope its not my eye that are cheating me.

I think a 2nd class has a ribbion and a 1st class has a pin.

TIm

Thanks for the replies lads.
I have just taken this photo of the interior showing the rear layout of the Iron cross...
At the top is the same crown as the front, 'FW' embossed below, a branch of some sort in the centre, and '1813' at the bottom...
The spring appears to be used to hold cigarettes...


Brad

Ok, thats the back of an Iron Cross WWI. The Letters FW stand for "Friedrich Wilhelm III", the Prussian King during the Napoleonic Wars. He created the Iron Cross 1813. It was the first War Medal, that could be awarded to all soldiers, regardless of their status or rank.


Tim is right with the ribbon and the pin...

Thanks for the confirmation there Jan. Would you have any idea how it would happen to be made into a cigarette case? Would it be safe to assume it was a treasure of wartime that had been put together in the years since?
Brad

This kind of stuff was made frequently after the war by people looking to make a few dollars with the junk that could be found everywhere. It's alot more common to find fluted, engraved, and other wise "artefeid" (I just made that word up...) artillery shell casings though. Bits and bobs like toy airplanes, cigarette cases and lamps turn up often too.

I agree with David on this matter...Iron Crosses- at least the second class- were awarded quite often...so it is likely many of them got into the hands of the allies. It might be possible that the case was made already during the war...but i doubt that.
May I ask how you've got the cigarette case?

Yep, you see a bit of that sort of stuff... Planes 'in fight' mounted on an old shell casing for example.




Jan, it was picked up at a yard sale for about $20AU... Quite a few years ago though!