Lord Kitchener

I spotted another blip of this coin, so I've been looking out for it and today I got it in change. It's still pretty shiny but as you can see on this close-up it's already damaged.

It's a version of the famous Great War recruiting poster with Lord Kitchener on. Contrary to popular opinion at the time he realised that the war about to begin was going to be a long drawn out blood bath which didn't make him popular with most of the generals and politicians of the day, who thought it would all be over by Christmas...

Sadly he was very much right but didn't live to see the end, his ship being sunk and his body along with his staff and most of the ship's crew was lost and never recovered.

The dates on the coin are also interesting as the war didn't end in 1918 that was only the year of the armistice, the actual war ended with the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, though war technically still existed for many additional years between other parties for some time as other treaties came into force...