Army helps unveil WWI commemorative coin

By Gary Sheftick
Army News Service

WASHINGTON -- Army leaders helped the U.S. Mint unveil a World War I commemorative coin on Oct. 9 that will partially fund a national memorial honoring the 4.7 million U.S. veterans who served in that conflict.

Chief of Staff of the Army Gen. Mark Milley stands beside the design for the back of the World War I commemorative coin, dubbed "poppies in the wire," after he unveiled it Oct. 9, 2017 at the Association of the U.S. Army Annual Meeting and Exposition. (Photo Credit: U.S. ARmy photo by Spc. Connor Ryan Kelly)The coin will actually be issued early next year, but its design was revealed at the Association of the U.S. Army Annual Meeting and Exposition by Acting Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy and Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley.

"No war should be forgotten," McCarthy said, referring to the fact that World War I is the only major American conflict this past century which has no national memorial in the nation's capital. "No military member's service should be forgotten."

Proceeds from the commemorative coin will help fund a WWI national memorial in Pershing Park, in Washington, D.C., along Pennsylvania Avenue and 14th Street, just over a block from the White House. Ground is scheduled to be broken for the memorial Nov. 9.

The design of the coin features a charging WWI "doughboy" on the front with weapon in hand and barbed wire across the bottom. The back of the coin depicts barbed wire behind a field of poppies.

"Poppies in the wire" was designed to remember the sacrifices of WWI veterans, said J.B. Johnson, director of corporate communications for the U.S. Mint. He was at AUSA to help unveil the coin design, along with Terry Hamby, chairman of the U.S. World War I Centennial Commission.

Sale of the commemorative coin "will be the first step" in memorializing the millions who fought, Hamby said. Proceeds from the coin and accompanying five-piece set of medals will not only fund the memorial, but also outreach and education about WWI conducted by the centennial commission.

The coin will be a commemorative silver dollar, but the metals used to mint it will be worth much more, officials said.

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