«The larks, still bravely singing» and the «sunset glow»: lines from John McCrae’s poem In Flanders Fields became the subject of Australia’s 2015 $2 coin.

The design was created by the Royal Australian Mint: sculpted larks surround orange coloured rings which, in the Mint’s description, represent the sunset glow. The red poppies of the same poem made the poppy a symbol of remembrance of the fallen.

The coin is dedicated to Remembrance Day, 11 November: at 11 am on that day in 1918 the guns on the Western Front fell silent. It continued the series of commemorative $2 coins after the 2012 poppy and the 2014 dove. In the same year of 2015 the Mint issued another coloured coin of this value, for the centenary of the landing at Anzac Cove.

The In Flanders Fields mintage was 2.15 million, roughly ten times fewer than the standard $2 coins of 2015. The obverse bears Ian Rank-Broadley’s portrait of Elizabeth II.

In a collection the coin joins Australia’s series of Remembrance Day $2 coins and a topical set of birds and literary subjects on coins.

UNC grade: the coin never circulated, there is no wear, and the mint lustre and the coloured ring are retained; only minor storage marks are acceptable.

The VPcoins catalogue includes both modern commemorative issues and coins of past eras.