The House Order of Ernestine does have several attachments for several award occasions. Besides the typical swords for war merit, the year date for home front war merit was a further variation that was scarcely awarded.

The idea was born already in the autumn of 1914 and put in place immediately. As visual sign for this particular kind of merit a year date was attached to the upper cross arm of a decoration. For awards made during later war years the year dates were attached to the upper and lower cross arms. The date could be awarded within all classes of the order as well as to the merit cross. Needless to say that this award was given out rather scarce and is therefore very had to find in all classes. The year date application itself is finely coined, detailed as shown in the picture below.

As the letters E, B and F that characterizes among other details the 1st model of this order, the year date is attached to the cross arm in the exact same way. Original pieces have little pipes integrated in the enamel through which the year date is stuck and fixed (see the round pipe opening behind the 4 in 1914).

For Sax-Coburg-Gotha the following awards were recorded*(1914-18):