Special Edition - Operation Black Buck 40th Anniversary Coin

This Special Edition coin has been commissioned for release on 2 April, the anniversary of the Falklands Conflict, which led to the only time in their entire service with the Royal Air Force (RAF) that Vulcans dropped a bomb in anger – Operation Black Buck.

• On the obverse of the coin is the familiar Vulcan planform, also, the planform of the Victor aircraft that supported the air to air refuelling for the missions. The aircraft sit above a map of the Falkland Islands

  On the outer ring, ‘40th ANNIVERSARY FALKLAND ISLANDS’ and ‘1982 - 2022’ is displayed in white text, with ‘OPERATION BLACK BUCK’ displayed in the centre of the coin.

• The reverse of the coin displays the Vulcan and Victor aircraft in camouflage schemes, displayed above the RAF roundel that was used on these aircraft.

The coin measures 50mm (just slightly under 2 inches) in diameter and is supplied in a hard plastic capsule to safely store it away.

On 30 April, Black Buck One began. The target was the main runway at Port Stanley airfield and on the morning of 1 May the code word was signalled, ‘superfuse’ - a successful attack.

Black Buck Missions 2 to 7 continued through May and into June 1982. The Argentine ground forces surrendered two days after the final Black Buck 7 mission.

Monday 14 June 1982, was the end of the ten-week conflict and the islands returned back to British control.