Britain's most spectacular commemoratives, No12: 2007 Lest We Forget 1st class

The second of a series of three poppy designs in the Lest We Forget series, from a miniature sheet commemorating the Battle of Passchendaele in 1917, is dominated by the intense red of the flower, almost like a spreading pool of blood.

A closer look at the black stamen reveals a group of soldiers going over the top, advancing through what was a once a grove of trees, now reduced to broken stumps.

This is a very potent image indeed, as we realise that, like half a million men in the bloody battle, they are leaving us, never to return.

Design: Hat-Trick Design.

Printing: lithography by De La Rue.

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