The Royal Australian Mint has launched a new triangular coin to commemorate the Centenary of the First World War.
The silver $5 dollar coin is inscribed with the words from Laurence Binyon’s wartime poem, For the Fallen: “At the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember them”.
Featuring poppies growing in a desolate field with the sun setting in the background, the coin’s theme of Lest We Forget honours Australians who have fought in all conflicts since 1914, the Royal Australian Mint said.
Working with the Department of Veterans’ Affairs and the Australian War Memorial, the Mint will be developing a series of commemorative coins to mark the Centenary of the First World and Anzac Centenary.
Earlier this year, it was announced that a $1 coin with the official logo of the Anzac Centenary and the the words ‘100 Years of Anzac’ is set to be produced.
Australia joins fellow Commonwealth nations Britain and Canada in producing special commemorative coins to mark the 100th anniversary of the conflict.
As Dominions of the British Empire in 1914, both Australia and Canada fully committed themselves to Britain’s war effort at the outbreak of hostilities.
Canada’s coin features a couple at a train station embracing as men prepare to depart for military training camps and eventually onwards to the battlefields of Europe.
The UK’s coin features Lord Kitchener, with the slogan of his famous recruiting campaign: ‘Your country needs you’.
The design has sparked debate in Britain, with some criticising it for being “too jingoistic”. A petition, which has attracted tens of thousands of signatures, has called for wartime nurse Edith Cavell to be commemorated on a Centenary coin.
Source: Royal Australian Mint
Images courtesy of the Royal Australian Mint
Posted by: Daniel Barry, Centenary News