2016-09-26 Mon

The Royal Mint will be issuing a £5 coin for Alderney to celebrate the spirit of Remembrance Day featuring a wreath of colourful poppies. The Mint has been issuing special coins since the last 5 years to mark this memorable day and poppy flowers are considered to be a symbol of remembrance to honour servicemen and women who have lost their lives for the country.

The trichromatic printing process creates layers of colours on the coin to aptly recreate the vibrant red colouring of the poppy. The design is inspired by a similar wreath that’s housed at the Royal Mint’s on-site war memorial at Llantrisant, South Wales.

The inscription on the reverse reads THEIR NAME LIVETH FOR EVERMORE, a quote which used on war memorials around the world and is originally stated in Apocrypha at Ecclus. 44:14, which reads “Their bodies are buried in peace; but their name liveth for evermore.”

This passage is read on Remembrance Day. Novelist and poet Rudyard Kipling, chose these words for inscription on war memorials when he was a member of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. His 18-year-old son John lost his life serving the country, just six weeks after his birthday in 1915.

The obverse features the common portrait of Queen Elizabeth II.

A Brilliant Uncirculated copper-nickel coin and two Proof .925 fine silver coins are available. The Proof versions are available in Standard version and in a piedfort (double thick) size. The BU coin has an unlimited mintage and can be purchased for £17. The standard Proof silver version has a mintage limit of 2,016 pieces and can be purchased for £80. The Piedfort Proof silver version has a mintage limit of 1,000 pieces and can be purchased for £160.