Alderney, a Crown Dependency sitting just 8 miles off the Normandy coast, has issued commemorative coinage under Royal Mint licensing since the 1990s — these pieces carry legal tender status in name only, never circulating on the island. Churchill's connection to the Channel Islands is not incidental: during the German occupation of 1940–1945, he made the controversial decision not to defend or attempt to retake the islands, a strategic calculation that left roughly 65,000 British subjects under Nazi control for the duration of the war.
Alderney, a Crown Dependency sitting just 8 miles off the Normandy coast, has issued commemorative coinage under Royal Mint licensing since the 1990s — these pieces carry legal tender status in name only, never circulating on the island. Churchill's connection to the Channel Islands is not incidental: during the German occupation of 1940–1945, he made the controversial decision not to defend or attempt to retake the islands, a strategic calculation that left roughly 65,000 British subjects under Nazi control for the duration of the war.