Description

In 2015 the Royal Mint continues the First World War centenary commemorations with the second £2 coin, in a five-coin series, which honours the Royal Navy of the First World War.

Two obverses were used with this coin reverse. One with the portrait of the Queen by Ian Rank-Broadley (4th portrait) and the other with the portrait by Jody Clark (5th portrait). The denomination has been incorporated into the obverse, in the case of 4th portrait at the bottom as ‘TWO POUNDS’ and for 5th portrait as ‘2 POUNDS’ to the left of the Queen. Only the 5th portrait was released into general circulation but for 100 pieces which were put in the tills of the gift shop on the HMS Belfast.

The First World War was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history. Over nine million combatants and seven million civilians died as a result of the war.

The war drew in all the world's economic great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Allies (based on the Triple Entente of the Russian Empire, the French Third Republic, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland) versus the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary.

The Russian government collapsed in March 1917, and a revolution in November followed by a further military defeat brought the Russians to terms with the Central Powers via the Treaty of Brest Litovsk, which granted the Germans a significant victory. After a stunning German offensive along the Western Front in the spring of 1918, the Allies rallied and drove back the Germans in a series of successful offensives. On 4 November 1918, the Austro-Hungarian empire agreed to an armistice, and Germany, which had its own trouble with revolutionaries, agreed to an armistice on 11 November 1918, ending the war in victory for the Allies.