91 - Prussia, Iron Cross 1st Class 1914, pinback cross on pin, royal crown, First World War

Prussia, Iron Cross 1st Class 1914, pinback cross on pin, royal crown, First World War Iron, silver. Iron Cross 1st Class 1914, flat pinback cross, blackened iron core in a silver frame, cross pattée with curved arms, frame with smooth edge and inner beaded border, raised royal crown in the upper arm, raised monogram “W” in the centre, date “1914” in the lower arm, reverse with matt surface, vertically attached pin with three-part hinge and pin catch. Maker’s mark on the pin no longer legible. 42x42 mm (HxW) The Iron Cross was instituted on 10 March 1813 by King Frederick William III of Prussia in Breslau; the final drawing of the cross was made by Karl Friedrich Schinkel. Emperor Wilhelm II renewed the institution on 5 August 1914 at the beginning of the First World War; shape, colour and manner of wear were retained, only the royal initial and the date changed, and the statutes corresponded to those of 1870. The 1st Class, known as EK 1 for short, was worn as a pinback badge on a pin or screw plate, always in its original form, on the left breast.