Remembering peacekeeping on Armistice day

Here is a PNC with a simple, effective design. Broadly blue, the colour of UN peacekeepers, and with the main theme being a dove holding an olive branch, a universal symbol of peace.

The 11th November is “Remembrance day” or “Armistice day”. At 11am on 11 November 1918, the guns on the Western Front fell silent after more than four years of continuous warfare. The Germans called for an armistice (suspension of fighting) in order to secure a peace settlement. They accepted the allied terms of unconditional surrender.

The conflict had mobilised over 70 million people, left between 9 and 13 million dead, and as many as one third of these with no grave.

The 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month attained a special significance in the post-war years. It became universally associated with the remembrance of those who had died in the war.

Skip forward less than 30 years, and as World War II was about to end in 1945, nations were in ruins, and the world, once again, wanted peace. Representatives of 50 countries gathered at the United Nations Conference on International Organization in San Francisco, California from 25 April to 26 June 1945. For the next two months, they proceeded to draft and then sign the UN Charter, which created a new international organization, the United Nations, which, it was hoped, would prevent another world war like the one they had just lived through.

To the PNC then, the text on the reverse reads: “Over the past 75 years, Australia’s participation in peacekeeping activities has been extensive, embracing missions sponsored by the United Nations, North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, ad hoc coalitions and nation states seeking intervention and stability. The first peacekeeping mission in which Australians participated involved a UN group of military observers in Indonesia in 1947.

Generally, Australian peacekeeping forces have been limited to small numbers of high-level and technical support troops, observers and police. However, significantly large units of combat troops have supported missions, such as Cambodia, Rwanda, Somalia and East Timor. Since 1947, more than 80,000 Australian personnel have participated in over 80 missions. Sixteen Australians have died while on peacekeeping missions.”

The coin in the PNC is a commemorative, coloured $2 coin. It depicts two Peace Doves with Olive branch either side of a central blue circle. The coin was released to circulation, although was quickly snapped up, and like most coloured $2, would be extremely rare to actually find in your change.

The obverse features the standard 2019 – 2022 effigy of Queen Elizabeth II, the sixth, and last portrait of her to appear on Australian coins.

Finally the stamp ties in with the dove holding an olive branch against a blue sky background theme. It is postmarked 11 November 2022, Remembrance day.