2 Pounds - Elizabeth II 4th portrait, World War I

Issued to mark the centenary of Britain's entry into the First World War, this was the first in a planned series of WWI commemoratives the Royal Mint would release annually through 2018. The August 1914 declaration against Germany came after Britain's ultimatum over the German invasion of neutral Belgium expired at midnight — a diplomatic wire so pivotal that Foreign Secretary Edward Grey reportedly remarked that evening, "The lamps are going out all over Europe."