With a healthy supply of First World War commemorative coin releases last year, obviously due to it being the centenary year, it doesn’t take a genius to understand the trend is going to continue until reaching a real crescendo in 2018. Australia has been a  particularly keen contributor and 2015 will no doubt be a signature year for the mints there because it will be a century since the formation of ANZAC, the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.

Formed in Egypt in 1915, they famously fought in the ambitious, but ultimately ill-concieved Gallipoli offensive to take the Dardenelles channel and knock the Ottoman Empire out of the war by capturing Constantinople. By the time the Allies withdrew, over 100,000 men lay dead including almost 60,000 Turks, and 43,000 British Empire troops, amongst them 8,709 Australians and 2,721 New Zealanders, the latter being around a quarter of all those that landed.

The Royal Australian Mint’s latest coin depicts a poignant scene of a soldier holding a bugle, possibly playing the Last Post, to a group of ANZAC troops standing on the Gallipoli cliffs. In the background sits the bay and beaches where the troops were landed. Available in a 1/10th ounce gold and an odd 1/3oz silver, the coins come nicely packaged in the RAM’s own coin boxes and carry the ‘C’ mintmark. Available to order now from the RAM website and no doubt from the usual dealers like Downies.

MINTS DESCRIPTION

The design inspired by soldiers of the Anzac legend and the location in which they earned their nation’s pride. Each year on 25 April, we remember the Australian and New Zealand troops who came ashore on Gallipoli, as part of a wider British effort to seize control of the Turkish peninsula and the Dardanelles. Presented in the Royal Australian Mint’s latest presentation cases with printed packaging reflecting the theme of remembrance with emotive imagery.

The 2015 mintmark and privy mark series is part of the Royal Australian Mint’s Official Anzac Centenary Coin Program.

The gold version is $300 AUD and the silver $50 AUD. International buyers do not pay Australian GST, so prices drop to $272.73 and $45.45 respectively.