PCGS MS62 1939 Germany Third Reich Brass Medal War Merit Cross Medal

Circular oxidised bronze medal with loop for ribbon suspension; the face with the image of the War Merit Cross (without swords), being a stippled cross pattée with bifurcated ends to the arms with a circular central medallion bearing a cross gammée within a raised border of oak leaves; the reverse inscribed ‘Für Kriegs-verdienst’ (for War Merit) in Gothic script and dated ‘1939’;  The medal, designed by Richard Klein of Munich, was instituted on 19 August 1940, some ten months after the War Merit Cross, partly in order to maintain the prestige of the Cross, and was purely a civil award for merit in supporting the war effort.