50 Pence - Elizabeth II WWI - Sapping, Mining

Guernsey's long series of WWI centenary 50 pence issues, released across the commemorative window of 2014–2018, were produced by the Pobjoy Mint under license. The sapping and mining subject is among the more technically obscure choices in the series — a deliberate effort to document aspects of the Western Front that mass-market commemoration typically ignores. Mining operations, particularly those culminating in the nineteen simultaneous detonations at Messines in June 1917, rank among the most audacious engineering feats of the entire conflict.