Lusitania medallion, British issue

Commissioned in Germany 1915 the original Lusitania medallion was struck by Karl Goetz to highlight the culpability of the British Government in the sinking of the Cunard liner RMSLusitania by a German submarine in May 1915. The event, in which 1,190 civilians died, provoked outrage among allied countries and neutral America, despite a warning from the German government that ships flying the flag of Britain or her allies would be at risk of warfare.

The British issue of the medallion was organised through the War Propaganda Bureau with the assistance of American-British retail magnate Gordon Selfridge whose department store sold the copies of the medallion with the proceeds going to the St. Dunstan's Blinded Soldiers and Sailors Hostel. The medal was issued with a note claiming Goetz's medal was proof of the German government's merciless approach to the war.