The Royal Mint has collaborated with the U.K. Imperial War Museums on a commemorative coin honouring Remembrance Day.
Issued on Oct. 11, the coin features four red digitally printed poppies – the iconic symbol of remembrance – alongside the fourth stanza of English poet Laurence Binyon’s For the Fallen, which honoured First World War casualties. British designer and sculptor Gary Breeze produced the coin’s reverse design with inspiration from a 2015 Royal Mail stamp he also created using the same stanza from For the Fallen.
“I find the words incredibly moving,” Breeze said. “There is perhaps no greater sadness than that which is felt on waking up and this is expressed so economically in that single sentence. I wanted the inscription on the coin to be incised, like lettering on a war memorial, and the style is inspired by lettering from the interwar period.”
The coin is available in silver proof and Brilliant Uncirculated condition via royalmint.com.
The Royal Canadian Mint has issued coins to mark Remembrance Day since 2004, when it struck its first 25-cent poppy coin. This year, the Crown corporation issued a one-ounce silver coin, “A Wreath of Remembrance: Lest We Forget,” as part of its October numismatic catalogue.