100th Anniversary of the First World War and Outbreak
By Coinsanduk | Thursday, 13 February 2025
The year 2014 marked the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War. In 1914, Lord Kitchener was appointed to mastermind a recruitment campaign that would go on to create one of the largest volunteer armies ever known in Britain. It was commemorated by the Royal Mint with the first coin of a five-year series.
The design was selected to mark the centenary of the start of the First World War because the poster has come to be strongly associated with the outbreak of the war and is recognised by much of the population. It is intended to highlight the Government propaganda campaign to conscript army volunteers at the start of the war.
Though many posters encouraged the men of Britain to enlist, the image of Kitchener himself has come to stand for the call to fight for King and country that saw men respond in their thousands. It is to this instantly recognisable image that the experienced artist John Bergdahl turned to create his stirring design: Your country needs you!.
This official UK £2 coin remembers one of the most significant moments in British history with a design that recalls the spirit, and with hindsight, the poignancy, of the rush to enlist encouraged by Lord Kitchener.
- Royal Mint
The United Kingdom entered WWI in August 1914, few weeks after the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, when King George V declared war after the expiry of an ultimatum to the German Empire.
The Liberal cabinet made the decision, although the party had been strongly anti-war until the last minute. The Conservative Party was pro-war. The Liberals knew that if they split on the war issue, they would lose control of the government to the Conservatives.
At the start of the First World War, Kitchener became secretary of state for war, a cabinet minister. On 5 June 1916, Kitchener was making his way to Russia on HMS Hampshire to attend negotiations with Tsar Nicholas II when in bad weather the ship struck a German mine 1.5 miles (2.4 km) west of Orkney, Scotland, and sank.
In the Second Boer War, Kitchener played a key role in Lord Roberts' conquest of the Boer Republics before succeeding him as commander-in-chief, by which time Boer forces had taken to guerrilla fighting and British forces imprisoned Boer and African civilians in concentration camps.
The Outbreak £2 coin was also offered in a presentation card. Limited mintage of silver and gold varieties were also made.
In 2014, The Royal Mint begins a five-year commemoration of the First World War, making a journey from outbreak to armistice.
The centenary of the outbreak of war is marked with this first £2 coin, to be followed by one coin each year until 2018, when the end of the war will be remmebered.
- Royal Mint
Specifications - Brilliant uncirculated
- Composition: Inner: Cupro-nickel, Outer: Nickel-brass
- Weight: 12 g
- Diameter: 28.4 mm
- Designers
- Obverse: Ian Rank-Broadley
- Reverse: John Bergdahl
- Edge lettering: The lamps are going out all over Europe
£2 2014 price guide and values
