Royal Mint release new poppy coin to mark 100 years of Remembrance Day

11 September 2019, 16:26 | Updated: 11 September 2019, 16:28

By Alice Dear

A new £5 coin has been released to commemorate the history of Remembrance Day.

On November 11th this year, it will be 100 years of Remembrance Day in the UK.

Each year, we remember the members of the armed forces who died in World War I, and from then on all that have passed while in the line of duty.

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To mark a decade for Remembrance Day – also known to many as Poppy Day - Royal Mint have released a new £5 coin.

The Remembrance Coin is an uncirculated coin which is a “keepsake for a veteran or military enthusiast”.

The coin has the date World War I official ended, 1919, and this year’s date, 2019, on it.

The coin also has a colourful poppy on it, with the quote We Will Remember Them embossed around it.

The Remembrance Day coin was designed by Harry Brockway, who explained that it was the poppy that inspired his designs.

He said: “The story goes that the red poppy grew in abundance on the churned-up soil of the Western Front.

“I cannot be the only one to notice that red poppies seem to be everywhere in our hedgerows and fields 100 years later.

“When the Royal British Legion decided to adopt the red poppy as the symbol of Remembrance, I imagine that they had in mind the delicacy of the flower, on its long, elegant stem, and I wanted to emphasise that feature in my design.”

He went on: “I thought the best way to do that was to have a single poppy, so there was space to show the long, winding stem with the seemingly oversized flower head."

The uncirculated version of the coin will set you back £17, while other versions are much more expensive.

The Silver Proof Piedfort version of the coin is £170, the Silver Proof version is £90, and the Gold Proof coin is £2,375.