50 Pence - Elizabeth II WWI - Machine Guns

Jersey's fourteen-coin WWI centenary series, issued between 2014 and 2018, commemorated specific episodes and technologies of the conflict rather than generic themes of remembrance. The machine gun's tactical significance was grimly proven at the Somme in July 1916, where German MG 08 positions inflicted roughly 57,000 British casualties on the first day — the single worst day of losses in British military history.

Gold-plated steel issues of this type were produced for the collector market at accessible price points, with the plating applied over a base steel core struck to crown-sized specifications long familiar in British commemorative issues.