£2 coin

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Quote :

The Royal Mint announced earlier this month that the image of Lord Kitchener from a First World War recruitment poster pointing his finger above the words “Your country needs YOU” would be on the new coin this year.

On a scale of 1 to 10 it's a little close to 1 in my own personal 'do I really care'-o-meter although the criticism, I would agree with.

When donkeys led lions, dulce decorum est, pro patria mori... it's something fairly shameful from our history of a time where elitism and social division was far broader than today. The ruling classes calling on their feudal serfs to go and fight and die in the mud of Europe.

Apt that the head of the Queen is on the other side.

Yeah... Let's get modern!

How about an image of Mecca in the middle and 'Praise be to Allah' around the outside?

the man who created concentration camps gets on a coin   

Tens of thousands of officers from the 'ruling classes' fought and died with the plebs they were commanding. Do you think it's any different today ? it isn't, 90%+ of todays rank and file come from 'working class' backgrounds and 90%+ of todays officer class are from the privately educated, upper classes. It's always been and probably always will be that way, too put it crudely, the brains tend to lead the brawn.

Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori - that old lie!

But as a remembrance of that war it seems not an inappropriate image.

Jack Sheppard wrote:

Tens of thousands of officers from the 'ruling classes' fought and died with the plebs they were commanding. Do you think it's any different today ? it isn't, 90%+ of todays rank and file come from 'working class' backgrounds and 90%+ of todays officer class are from the privately educated, upper classes. It's always been and probably always will be that way, too put it crudely, the brains tend to lead the brawn.

The death rate of the officers who led their men was greater than the plebs. And that is to be lauded and grieved over in equal measure. There may have been a nobility (no pun intended - but nevertheless an interesting aspect of our language) about their actions but they and "their" men were some of the last vestiges of an age past its sell-by date.

Maybe an interesting aside .... a number of my ancestors came from Menheniot. If you visit there and look at the WW1 war memorial, you will see the division of the names into "men" and "officers" and that speaks volumes.

WW1 was an incredibly pointless war imo and such a waste of life which brought about ww2. But never the less the men who fought in that war deserve to remembered even 100 years on.

Its such a shame they choose Kitchener to mark it instead of a poppy or a tommy.

I didn't know much about Kitchener before today - just read his wiki page.
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Might explain the whole Darling/Melchett relationship - wot wot!

I wish we'd have some truly inspiring people on our money rather than some aristocratic career militarian who's job it was to kill people.

My Dad's Uncle died on HMS Hampshire with Kitchener.

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one to add to my collection, not seen many of the commenrative coins in recent years.
Nice to keep & pass down one day.

Suprised they used kitchener image but cant think of what other image they could use, no doubt the 2018 will have a poppy design.


The Queens head on the reverse is the last design that will be used, previously there have been 4 (i think).

Did you know only Empire coins (British East Africa etc) were struck with Edward 8th head on them for circulation.

Rickler wrote:

Yeah...  Let's get modern!

How about an image of Mecca in the middle and 'Praise be to Allah' around the outside?

How about an image of Washington DC, Ricks ? And on the back, a retro hand slipping the IRA a bit of dosh. Terrorism was all so civilised then.
Or if that's just a little too close to the mark for the tourists, how about a cuddly picture of Airstrip 1.

I'm still fascinated that the British sterling is now worth nearly 20% less against the Euro than when the Euro first launched, and yet everyone tells us here in Britain that it is the Eurozone that is knackered. I studied economics, and believe me, something doesn't add up there, but then, I'm just a wierdo.

Still, I remember there was lots of "informed" talk at the time, that the Yanks couldn't possibly allow the idea of a Euro to challenge the almighty dollar.
Funny how all those US based market speculators rounded on the Euro, and not Sterling or the dollar, even though most of the debt is in those two zones.

Should have gone for a little known hero sir Keith park.

Davidfriio4 wrote:

Should have gone for a little known hero sir Keith park.

Needs to be from WWl

Edith Cavell ?

Tom Daley

Ian Newell