The 2014 design is actually quite moving. It shows a soldier helping a nurse put a bandage on a wounded comrade. It’s tender, respectful, and historically accurate. Then you flip it over, and you see a giant, cartoonish cannon pointing at a poppy. The scale is insane. The soldier is a dwarf next to this cannon. It’s like the cannon is the main character, and the soldier is just a tiny, panicked extra.
The 2015 design, by contrast, is a masterpiece of confusion. It features a soldier, a nurse, a rifle, a cannon, a poppy, and a ring of barbed wire. It’s like a Where’s Wally? book for adults who are very bad at geography. I once spent five minutes trying to figure out if the barbed wire was a moat or a very aggressive necklace. It’s neither. It’s just a design decision that someone made after a long lunch.
And let’s talk about the color. Two-pound coins are bimetallic, meaning they have a silver center and a gold outer ring. On the WWI coin, this makes the soldier look like he’s wearing a golden Hula-Hoop. It’s a bit distracting when you’re trying to contemplate the horrors of the Somme.
The First World War 1914-1918, 2 Pound Coin 2015 - Etsy UK
Surprising Fact That Will Make You the Life of the Party (or Get You Kicked Out of One)
Here’s the zinger: the Royal Mint accidentally minted a batch of these coins with no edge inscription. Yes, you heard me. A tiny number of 2014 WWI two-pound coins were produced without the “Lest We Forget” text. They are now worth hundreds of pounds to collectors. So, if you ever find a coin that looks like it’s been shaved by a tiny, sentimental robot, do not spend it on a KitKat.
Also, did you know the standard two-pound coin was introduced in 1997 to replace the old “round pound”? So, for 20 years, people complained about the round pound being too light. Then they complained about the two-pound coin being too heavy. The Royal Mint must have a tattoo on their collective forehead that says, “You can’t please everyone, but you can definitely make them angry with a coin.”
