| Description : In Flanders' Fields is one of the best‐known
English‐language poems about the First World War. It was written on the 3rd of May 1915 by the Canadian
Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, whose friend had fallen at Ypres the previous day. The poem describes the fields of
Flanders, where the red blossoming corn poppies remind us of the spilled blood of the fallen and yet nurture the hope that
life goes on. It is not only in English‐speaking countries that the poppy blossom has since come to symbolise the
memory of fallen soldiers, and so it adorns the coin dedicated to the centenary commemoration, which runs from 2014 to 2018
and was designed by Luc Luycx. At the top it reads "BELGIE‐BELGIQUE‐BELGIEN" (Belgium in Dutch, French and
German), and at the bottom "2014‐18" "The Great War Centenary". At the bottom, next to a cat the logo of the mint master
Bernard Gillard, is the helmeted head of the Archangel Michael the mint mark of the Royal Belgian mint
Monnaie Royale de Belgique / Koninklijke Munt van België / Königliche Belgische Münzprägeanstalt
in Brussels. |
