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Miniature blue enamel Maltese cross, the arms with white enamel panels, with silver-gilt rays between the arms, on oval green enamel laurel wreath suspension; the face with a centrally-imposed five-pointed black star; the reverse identical; diameter 16.91mm (0.67 inch); on original age-faded ribbon. The Order was created on 1 December 1889 by Toffa, King of Porto-Novo and later king of Dahomey in West Africa, to reward his subjects and the French employed by the protectorate. The Order became a French Colonial Order by the decrees of 10 and 23 May 1896 and was administered by the Grand Chancellery of the Legion d’Honneur until it became defunct on 3 December 1963. The Order came to be used to reward French military for a minimum of 10 years’ service in West and Equatorial Africa. A good example.
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