1 Crown - Elizabeth II WWI Posters - Keep Calm And Carry On

The "Keep Calm and Carry On" poster was never actually distributed during World War II — the Ministry of Information printed roughly 2.5 million copies in 1939 but withdrew them almost immediately, deeming the slogan patronizing. The design sat effectively unknown until a bookseller in Alnwick discovered a copy in 2000, triggering one of the more unlikely commercial revivals in British graphic history. By 2014, it had become a ubiquitous licensing property with no authentic wartime circulation story behind it.

Tristan da Cunha issues commemoratives under Crown authority but holds no independent mint facility; these are contract-struck pieces aimed squarely at the collector market.