The US Mint has unveiled the winning design for a collectible Silver Dollar commemorating all Americans who served in the First World War.
Available to buy from January 2018, sales of the Centennial coin will help to fund the creation of the new National World War I Memorial in Pershing Park, Washington DC.
The design is the work of Leroy Transfield, a New Zealand-born sculptor living in Utah.
The face of the new coin, entitled ‘Soldier’s Charge’, depicts an almost stone-like soldier gripping a rifle. Barbed wire twines feature in the lower right hand side, a motif continued on the reverse with poppies among loops in the wire.
“This coin honours all of 4.7 million American men and women from the Navy, the Marine Corps, the Coast Guard, the Air Services, and from the Army, who stepped forward to serve 100 years ago,” said Ryan McCarthy, Acting Secretary of the Army, at the unveiling in Washington on October 9.
Following bi-partisan backing for the coin in Congress, an open design competition was held by the Mint in 2016.
Democrat Congressman Emanuel Cleaver, from Missouri, was a co-sponsor of the legislation: “No war should be forgotten, and no veteran should be forgotten. This new coin will help us to remember the stories, and the lessons, from the people who served in that war. It will help to preserve their legacy,” he said.
The coin was unveiled at the National Meeting of the Association of the US Army in Washington on 9 October 2017. General Mark Milley, Chief of Staff of the Army, also attended the ceremony, together with T.V. Johnson, from the US Mint, and Terry Hamby, the new Chair of the World War I Centennial Commission.
See also in Centenary News:
‘A Soldier’s Journey’ explored – our interview with Sabin Howard, US WWI Memorial sculptor.
US Centennial Commission announces first ‘100 Cities/100 Memorials’ grant winners.
Information & images: US World War I Centennial Commission/US Mint
Posted by: CN Editorial Team