| Description : The lettering D‐DAY represents, stylised, a
landing ship and a tank gun. On the 6th of June 1944, Operation Overlord began, opening a second
front for the anti‐Hitler coalition. The landing of American, British, French, Canadian and Polish troops in Normandy
went under the code name Operation Neptune. Below the inscription "70e ANNIVERSAIRE DU DÉBARQUEMENT"
(70th anniversary of the Landings), are imprints of the soldiers' souls, blurred by a wave. The text
"Les sanglots longs des violons de l'automne blessent mon coeur d'une langueur monotone" (The long sobs of the violins of
autumn wound my heart with a monotonous melancholy) is the beginning of the poem Chanson d'automne by the French
Symbolist lyricist Paul Verlaine (1844‐1896), written in 1866. The second verse of the poem served as code ("All choked
and pale, when the hour strikes, I remember the former days, and I weep"), and is how the French Résistance was
informed of the imminent start of the invasion in a Radio Londres broadcast. At the top of the coin are the years
"1944‐2014", below "D" of D‐Day is the country abbreviation "RF" (République française, French
Republic), at the bottom a cornucopia is the mint mark of the French mint Monnaie de Paris in Plessac and to the
right of it a pentagon, the logo of the mint master and designer Yves Sampo. |
