Blood Money

In yet another access of Home Front good taste, the Royal Mint has produced a commemorative £20 coin indicating, among other things, that the outbreak of the First World War was an event equal in fiscal significance to the birth of a royal baby. Some of the dead are hinted at on the reverse side, with an image of Britannia waving toodle-oo to her boys as they sail off to the butcher's. "I decided to use the figure of Britannia," said the designer, John Bergdahl, "in order to represent all of the allies who took part, most of whom were British or drawn from the British Empire." Britannia, it would appear, did not so much rule the waves as share them equally with her chums, coloured or not. The coin will be legal tender but "too prestigious to spend", unlike the blood and guts of those selected sacrifices which it deigns to commemorate.