Along with the British Royal Mint and the various Australian and New Zealand mints, the Royal Canadian Mint have been at the forefront when designing and releasing coins commemorating the centenary of events of the First World War. With several releases already under their belt, and no doubt many more from now until the end of 2018, it will be increasingly difficult to theme coins in a unique way.
This new pair take one of the most iconic pieces of poetry to come from a war famous for it, ‘In Flanders Fields by the Canadian artillery commander, Major John McCrae, as their inspiration. The first of them is a $50 five-ounce coloured coin of traditional design. Not over coloured, it’s a solid effort. A better one for us is the clean-struck $20 coin that combines several detailed design elements instead of a single piece. The use of the period obverse is a great touch and makes a nice change from the tepid Susanna Blunt effigy of Queen Elizabeth II. Obviously your own taste may differ, but both are good efforts. The 1oz coin retails for $89.95 and the larger 5oz for a pretty hefty $519.95. They ship from 05 May to US and Canadian addresses only. Others will have to hit their local dealer to try and get one.
MINTS DESCRIPTION
Born in Guelph, Ont., John McCrae (1872-1918) was a compassionate doctor, a respected professor, and a veteran of the South African War. Enlisting soon after First World War was declared, McCrae was assigned second-in-command of the 1st Brigade of the Canadian Field Artillery, where his medical training made him invaluable as the brigade surgeon.
While the First Canadian Division valiantly fought in the Ypres salient, a friend’s death inspired McCrae to write his famous poem. On the morning of May 2, 1915, 22-year-old Lieutenant Alexis Helmer of Ottawa, Ont., was killed by enemy artillery fire upon emerging from his dugout. In the absence of a chaplain, McCrae himself presided over the funeral service as Helmer’s remains were deposited in a makeshift grave marked by a simple wooden cross.
While accounts vary, it is generally believed that McCrae wrote his famous poem the next day on the back step of an ambulance, in sight of Helmer’s grave and near the fields that were filling with the casualties of war.
McCrae set aside the poem–the second last he would write–only to take it up again after leaving Ypres for Boulogne. A finished copy was submitted to The Spectator in London but was rejected for publication; thankfully, a journalist brought back a copy to England’s Punch magazine, which printed it anonymously on December 8, 1915. With its theme of remembrance and the powerful visual of bright red poppies growing amid the devastation of war, the poem became widely seen as the embodiment of how soldiers viewed this war; the author of this popular poem soon became known.A hundred years later, McCrae’s own legacy and his poem live on.
While McCrae would succumb to illness and exhaustion in January 1918, his written words continue to give a voice to the fallen—one that time would not forget. After the war, it inspired the movement to recognize the poppy as the official symbol of remembrance after the war—a tradition that has continued, in the weeks leading up to Remembrance Day (Nov. 11) each year, when Canadians don this bright red symbol to honour the legacy of the more than 600,000 Canadians who served in the First World War, and the 60,000 of them who lost their lives.
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$50 FIVE OUNCE
Designed by Canadian artist Tony Bianco, the coin masterfully combines vibrant colour with finely detailed engraving to create a stirring scene of remembrance at a soldier’s grave.
There is an unusual stillness in the air as two Canadian soldiers take the time to quietly remember a fallen friend and colleague, who lies buried far from home in a field that is resplendent with the red poppies described in John McCrae’s poem, In Flanders Fields. With his head bent down and hat removed, one solemn soldier stands to the left of the stone grave; on the right side of the image, the second soldier kneels before the cross on one leg, his head bent down in quiet reflection.
These two soldiers are among the many who will help carry the legacy left behind by the fallen; it is they who will “take up our quarrel with the foe” and who will carry out the call to action described in the lines “to you from failing hands we throw / The torch; be yours to hold it high.” In the background, McCrae’s handwritten first line of his famous poem is inscribed in both English and in French: “In Flanders fields the poppies blow” and “Au champ d’honneur, les coquelicots.”
$20 ONE OUNCE
Designed by Canadian artist Laurie McGaw, your coin transports you back to 1915 with an intricately engraved image that evokes the opening lines of John McCrae’s poem, In Flanders Fields.
With his helmet removed and head bent in mourning, a lone Canadian soldier stands before a makeshift gravesite for fellow soldiers who were killed in battle; their final resting place resembles the Belgian fields near the Ypres salient, which provided the natural setting for McCrae’s haunting poem and contributed to the theme of the continuing cycle of life amid the devastation of war.
To the left of the soldier, a large image of a poppy offers a close view of the flowers that have become synonymous with remembrance; these same wild blooms are also seen to the right of the soldier, emerging from the upturned earth to grow “between the crosses, row on row, that mark our place.” In the glow of the sunset, two birds in flight echo McCrae’s words: “and in the sky, The larks, still bravely singing, fly…”
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