2014 50c Coin Australia at War - The Western Front

The Western Front was the major battle zone for British and Dominion Forces during the First World War and the location for many of Australia’s greatest contributions to the war effort. This is commemorated on this coin which will be sought after by coin collectors, war historians and service personnel past and present.

HISTORY AND SIGNIFICANCE
The Western Front was an unbroken stretch of land running 760 kilometres from the English Channel near Ostend, Belgium, to Belfort, France. This narrow war zone was the site of many gruelling battles, fought back and forth often to acquire as little as a few inches of land at a time.

Here, Australian troops spent three years ?ghting Imperial Germany. They fought at Fromelles, Pozières and Mouquet Farm on the Somme in 1916. In
1917, they pursued the Germans to the Hindenburg Line, and fought them in a third battle of Ypres in Belgium. In 1918, they defended the city of Amiens, battling alongside American troops at Hamel. The last Australian action of the war was at Montbrehain on 5 October 1918.

Dr Peter Pedersen, author of Anzacs on the Western Front said, “The Western Front has always stood in Gallipoli’s shadow,” despite many of Australia’s greatest contributions to the war occurring there.

FEATURES AND DESIGN

• Part of the Royal Australian Mint’s Offcial Anzac Centenary Coin Program and Australia at War Series

• Finished to the Royal Australian Mint’s colour printed uncirculated standard

• Coin’s reverse features an artistic representation of soldiers paying tribute to fallen colleagues on the Western Front, accompanied by a colour printed remembrance poppy

• Obverse features Queen Elizabeth II effigy sculpted by Ian Rank-Broadley

• Australian legal tender