The following description of the A.T. Cross Company Defined Contribution Retirement Plan (the "Plan") provides general information only. Participants should refer to the Plan document for more complete information.

General - The Plan is a defined contribution plan covering substantially all employees of A.T. Cross Company (the "Company"). The Plan is administered by a committee of three people appointed by the Company (the "Retirement Plan Committee") and is subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 ("ERISA").

Trustee of the Plan - Bank of America, N.A. is the trustee of the Plan. As trustee, Bank of America, N.A. holds the Plan's assets, maintains the accounting records of the Plan, and invests the Plan's assets. The trustee makes distributions in accordance with instructions of the Plan administrator.

Eligibility - Employees become eligible to participate in the Plan beginning in the first quarter coincident with or next following their date of hire.

Contributions - Upon entry into the Plan, a participant may contribute to the Plan an amount equal to any percentage from 1 percent through 25 percent of his or her annual salary.

The Company makes matching contributions to the Plan in an amount equal to 100 percent of each participant's contribution of 2 percent or less of the participant's salary, and 50 percent of each participant's contribution in excess of 2 percent and up to a maximum of 6 percent of the participant's salary.

The Plan also allows for profit-sharing contributions at the discretion of the Board of Directors. A participant must complete one year of service and be employed on the last day of the Plan year in order to receive an allocation of profit-sharing contributions. There were no Company discretionary profit-sharing contributions made for the years ended December 31, 2008 and 2007.

The Plan was amended in 2006 to provide for an additional year-end "Core Contribution" that mirrors the vesting schedule of the employer match. Under the amendment the Company is required to provide a contribution to the Plan, allocated to each employee eligible to participate in the Plan and who is employed as of the last day of the Plan year, representing 2 percent of compensation paid to each eligible employee during the Plan year. This contribution amounted to $349,631 and $355,331 for 2008 and 2007, respectively, and was remitted to the Plan in 2009 and 2008, respectively. The amendment also requires the Company to provide a contribution to the Plan, allocated to each employee eligible to participate in the Plan, who is employed as of the last day of the Plan year, and who has attained the age of 55 as of May 20, 2006, representing between 1 percent and 8 percent of the compensation paid to each eligible employee during the Plan year, for each of the years 2006 through 2008. This contribution totaled $93,072 and $113,409 for 2008 and 2007, respectively, and was remitted to the Plan in 2009 and 2008, respectively.

Contributions are subject to certain Internal Revenue Code (IRC) limitations.

Participant Accounts - Each participant's account is credited with the participant's contribution, the Company's matching contribution, and allocations of (1) Company discretionary profit-sharing contributions, (2) Company year-end "Core Contributions", and (3) Plan earnings and losses and certain fund management fees. Allocations of Company discretionary profit-sharing contributions and year-end "Core Contributions" are based on the participant's eligible compensation. Allocations of Plan earnings, Plan losses and certain fund management fees are based on participant account balances. The benefit to which a participant is entitled is the benefit that can be provided from the participant's vested account.

Investments - Participants direct the investment of their contributions and all Company contributions into various investment options offered by the Plan. The Plan offers several mutual funds, a common/collective trust and Company common stock as investment options for participants.

Participant Loans - Participants may borrow from their fund accounts from a minimum of $1,000 up to 50 percent of their vested account balances to a maximum of $50,000. Loans are repaid through payroll deductions, and the period of repayment for any loan cannot exceed five years. A participant may repay the entire outstanding balance of his or her loan at any time. Participants are limited to one outstanding loan at a time. Each loan is secured by the balance in the participant's account and bears interest at rates commensurate with prevailing rates. The methodology for determining loan interest rates, as disignated by the loan procedure, is Prime rate plus one percent.

Withdrawals - Withdrawals from the participant's vested portion of the Plan are permitted prior to retirement if the participant is able to demonstrate financial hardship as defined by the IRC. Additionally, participants that are active status may take a normal retirement in-service distribution at age 65 in an amount up to 100% of the vested account balance.

Vesting - Participants are vested immediately in their contributions plus actual earnings thereon. Vesting in the Company's contributions is at a rate of 20 percent for each year a participant works 1,000 hours.

If a participant leaves the Company prior to becoming 100 percent vested in the Company's contributions, the non-vested portion of the Company's contributions will be forfeited if the participant does not return to work at the Company within one year.

Forfeited Accounts - At December 31, 2008 and 2007, forfeited nonvested accounts totaled $25,297 and $33,547, respectively. Forfeited matching contributions will be used to reduce future Company matching contributions. Forfeited profit-sharing contributions will be redistributed to current participants based on their prior year compensation. For the years ended December 31, 2008 and 2007, forfeitures of $32,566 and $34,833, respectively, were used to reduce matching contributions made by the Company.

Payment of Benefits - Upon early or normal retirement, as defined by the Plan, a participant can elect to receive a lump-sum distribution equal to the vested interest in his or her account, or, alternatively, to have the Plan establish a monthly payment schedule to distribute the benefits in substantially equal installments to the participant over a period of time.

Administrative Expenses - All reasonable expenses of administering the Plan may be paid from assets of the Plan. Alternatively, the Company may, at its discretion, pay any or all such expenses.

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Financial Accounting Standards Board Statement No. 157, Fair Value Measurements (FAS 157), establishes a framework for measuring fair value. That framework provides a fair value hierarchy that prioritizes the inputs to valuation techniques used to measure fair value. The hierarchy gives the highest priority to unadjusted quoted prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities (Level 1 measurements) and the lowest priority to unobservable inputs (Level 3 measurements). The three levels of the fair value hierarchy under FAS 157 are described below:

The Plan's investments include shares of mutual funds and a common collective trust managed by Bank of America, N.A., the trustee. The transactions in these investments qualify as party-in-interest transactions. Fees paid by the Plan to the trustee for fund administrative expenses amounted to $22,381 and $21,849 in 2008 and 2007, respectively.

Although it has not expressed any intention to do so, the Company has the right under the Plan to discontinue its contributions at any time and to terminate the Plan subject to the provisions set forth in ERISA. In the event that the Plan is terminated, participants would become fully vested in their accounts.

The Internal Revenue Service has determined and informed the Company, by a letter dated April 30, 2004, that the Plan and related trust were designed in accordance with the applicable regulations of the IRC. Although the Plan has been amended since receiving the dermination letter, the plan administrator and the Plan's tax consel believe that the Plan is designed and is currently being operated in compliance with applicable requirements of the IRC.