Medal, Cross of Merit Cross 1st Type 1849- 1860
Object detail
Description
Medal, Maltese brass with silver circular centre. Red arms of cross. Obv: "1849". Rev: "FJ"(Franz Joseph) in centre "Viribus Unitus"
Classification
NUMISMATICS (MEDALS AND OTHER) Military Medals
Measurements
L 5 mm x W 29 mm x H 40 mm
Media/Materials description
Metal (Silver, Brass)
Enamel
Enamel
History and use
Silver Cross of Merit instituted in 1849 by Kaiser Franz Joseph for exceptional services to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. This example was received anonymously at the Queensland Museum on 22nd August 1927, accompanied by the following typewritten letter:
Dear Sir,
By the same mail I am posting you a medal which I “souvenired’ from a prisoner of war on the other side of the world, in 1918. I am making a present of it to the Museum; it may bew of some use to you, though I don’t suppose it is of any real value.
The chap I took it from didn’t like parting with it, nor do I, but i have had nothing but bad luck ever since I have had it, so i have decided to transfer it from my watch-chain to the Museum, which I think is next best to restoring it to its rightful owner, whoever and wherever he may be.
I don’t suppose the “hoodoo” will follow it to the Museum, for it seems that Museums, drunks, children and cats are free from that sort of thing.
All’s fair in love and war( according to some defunct sage who probably ranf off with his neighbour’s wife, or perhaps did something worse and equally as foolish), but I don’t suppose it was fair to go bushranging for souvenirs, as did I and 299,999 other Australians, and I suppose I deserved all the bad luck that has come my way. Trusting the medal may be of some use to your Museum,
Yours sincerely,
A Superstitious Digger
Beliefs in superstition and fatalism were common amongst civilians and combatants alike during the 1914 - 1918 war. Many soldiers carried charms and nearly every war memoir since has a story of someone who was saved by a cigarette offered at the right moment or by a cigarette case. (1) Many members of the 1st Australian Infantry Force also held unswervingly during - and after - the war to the belief that it was bad luck to light three cigarettes with the one match, this notion having even been enshrined in the 1931 three-act play 'Anzac'.
The appeal of such beliefs is somewhat understandable given those in uniform were often surrounded by mass killing and injury, and often living with the knowledge that their name could be on the next one.
Australian newspapers reported a ‘revival’ of superstitious practices in the decade following the Armistice, this being so widespread as to even invite public expressions of concern. Also widely reported then locally were the comments of leading British Anglican minister Dean William Ingre who despaired of the “recrudescence of necromuncy” particularly amongst the so called ‘leisured-classes’.
This items was publicly displayed in the coin cabinet, up until the Museum’s relocation in 1986.
Dear Sir,
By the same mail I am posting you a medal which I “souvenired’ from a prisoner of war on the other side of the world, in 1918. I am making a present of it to the Museum; it may bew of some use to you, though I don’t suppose it is of any real value.
The chap I took it from didn’t like parting with it, nor do I, but i have had nothing but bad luck ever since I have had it, so i have decided to transfer it from my watch-chain to the Museum, which I think is next best to restoring it to its rightful owner, whoever and wherever he may be.
I don’t suppose the “hoodoo” will follow it to the Museum, for it seems that Museums, drunks, children and cats are free from that sort of thing.
All’s fair in love and war( according to some defunct sage who probably ranf off with his neighbour’s wife, or perhaps did something worse and equally as foolish), but I don’t suppose it was fair to go bushranging for souvenirs, as did I and 299,999 other Australians, and I suppose I deserved all the bad luck that has come my way. Trusting the medal may be of some use to your Museum,
Yours sincerely,
A Superstitious Digger
Beliefs in superstition and fatalism were common amongst civilians and combatants alike during the 1914 - 1918 war. Many soldiers carried charms and nearly every war memoir since has a story of someone who was saved by a cigarette offered at the right moment or by a cigarette case. (1) Many members of the 1st Australian Infantry Force also held unswervingly during - and after - the war to the belief that it was bad luck to light three cigarettes with the one match, this notion having even been enshrined in the 1931 three-act play 'Anzac'.
The appeal of such beliefs is somewhat understandable given those in uniform were often surrounded by mass killing and injury, and often living with the knowledge that their name could be on the next one.
Australian newspapers reported a ‘revival’ of superstitious practices in the decade following the Armistice, this being so widespread as to even invite public expressions of concern. Also widely reported then locally were the comments of leading British Anglican minister Dean William Ingre who despaired of the “recrudescence of necromuncy” particularly amongst the so called ‘leisured-classes’.
This items was publicly displayed in the coin cabinet, up until the Museum’s relocation in 1986.
Registration number
N189
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