19th January 2015
The Cunard liner RMS Lusitania was sunk on 7th May 1915 off the coast of Ireland, by a German submarine. Even though the ship sank in 18 minutes 761 of the 1,959 people on board survived.
The Germans produced a bronze commemorative medal designed by Karl Goetz, depicting “Death selling passengers Lusitania tickets”, with the Lusitania sinking on the reverse.
Outraged by this, the British government produced a cast iron copy in huge quantities as a propaganda exercise.
These copy medals are often found in coin collections and have very little commercial value.
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