TO COMMEMORATE THE ARMISTICE

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 35, 5 November 1928, Page 10

TO COMMEMORATE THE ARMISTICE

MEDAL STRUCK BY ROYAL MINT (British Official Wireless.) Rugby, November 2. A medal has been struck by the Royal Mint to commemorate the Armistice. The mint will issue the medals in two sizes. There will be a large silver medal three inches iu diameter, which will be sold at 305., and a large bronze medal of the same size at 10s., and there will be a small bronze medal one and a quarter inches in diameter sold at Is. 9d. The design of tlie medal has been chosen after competitition between several well-known medallists.

An official of the Mint says: "We have simply followed tlie example of other countrie whicli fought in the war. As they had a commemorative medal and we had not, we thought the tenth anniversary of the armistice was a fitting opportunity to issue one. It is new in British history: Never before lias such a' medal been struck by the Mint after a war.

“The Government was anxious that there should not be any jingoistic or vindictive air about tlie medal, and the designer has designed it accordingly. On one side is the figure of Great Britain supporting a young warrior with sheathed sword and broken shackles of war, offering a wreath of laurel to tlie memory of the fallen. On tlie other side is tlje Cenotaph, surrounded by mi inscription. “Their Name Liveth for Evermore.’ The sheathed sword and the broken shackles of war were suggested by the great phrase Lord Oxford uttered when Britain entered the war. ‘We shall not sheath the sword until justice has been done.’

“Tlie proceeds of the sales will be devoted to covering the cost of manufacture of the medals. If there is any surplus it will go back to the Government.”