To mark the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings, Monnaie de Paris has minted a collection paying tribute to the soldiers of the four major Allied nations.
French commandos, British airborne troops and American and Canadian infantrymen are honoured in this historic collection.
Fred, a lieutenant with the Royal Winnipeg Rifles, nicknamed the "Little Black Devils", is a member of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division. He landed on Sword Beach at Graye, near Courseulles. He poses in front of the beach, where we can see a Churchill AVRE tank, two soldiers from his unit holding the Canadian flag of the time, and a traditional house from the Côte de Nacre landscape.
The reverse of these coins depicts a spiral of all the Allied nations that took part in the landings, whether on land, sea or in the air. The stars under the flags are also a tribute to the Liberty Road, the milestones marking the route taken by the 3rd American Army to liberate France, as far as Luxembourg.
