BACKGROUND: On January 30^TH 1938 Adolf Hitler instituted a series of Long Service Awards to recognize loyal long service in the police. The award was originally issued in three classes with the first class award for twenty-five years service, the second class award for eighteen years service and the third class award for eight years service. Allegedly another class of the award was introduced in August 1944 to recognize forty years loyal service and consisted of a golden metal cypher with "40" encompassed by an oak-leaf wreath to be affixed to the ribbon of the twenty-five year service award.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: This example is the third and lowest class of the Polizei long service awards. Roughly, 1 1/2" diameter, die struck alloy award with a silver washed finish. The obverse of the award features a raised outer lip with an embossed police emblem consisting of the police style national eagle clutching a wreathed swastika encompassed by a vertically oval oak-leaf wreath on a smooth background field. The reverse of the award features a large embossed, "8", to the center encompassed by Gothic script, "Für Treue Dienst in der Polizei", (For Loyal Service in the Police), also on a smooth background field with a raised outer lip. The silver wash is fully retained and is still quite clean and bright. The medal loop and ribbon suspension ring are both intact and the award comes complete with a roughly, 1 7/8" wide, 6 1/2" long piece of the original moire, cornflower blue, horizontally ribbed, rayon ribbon. The unusually wide ribbon is in overall very good clean condition and doesn’t appear to have ever been inserted through the suspension ring. The award has no visible manufacturers markings.

GRADE ****1/2                             PRICE $82.00