| LAST COINS/MEDALS ADDED: 31st August 2010 |
I've been searching for information on space coins, medals and other memorabilia from the Space Race for some time, and I've discovered that it's pretty difficult to find information about some of this stuff.
Like the Space Program, it seems it's all become history, and much of the detail was never recorded, or has just been forgotten. I started to build this website to document the information I find, hopefully it will become a useful resource to anyone with the same interests.
Space coins are legal tender (currency) with space or astronomy themes, while space medals are non-currency items. They fall into a number of categories, such as:
- Bullion rounds meant primarily for investment
- Commemorative sets issued to collectors after the actual events
- Legal tender with space-themed designs
- Coins and medals issued at the time of the events they portray.
Investment grade medals and coins are issued by companies such as The International Mint, The Franklin Mint and The Danbury Mint. Some small runs were also made by jewellers such as Gregory's Jewellers of Beak Street, London W.1.
These are usually Sterling (.925) Silver, and were mostly issued in the early to mid 1970's, when the first phase of the US space program was complete. They typically cover events from approx. 1960-1972 (Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs), although some celebrate achievements in the Soviet space program and some of the later collaborations (Spacelab, Apollo-Soyuz). Most recently in 2008, medals marking the emerging Chinese manned space programme have begun to appear.
Contemporary medals were often issued for issue to the employees of the partner companies associated with particular events such as the First Lunar Mission (Apollo 8), First Space Shuttle Flight, Engine tests etc. These are usually imprinted with a short note of thanks on the reverse, and sometimes come with a letter or other documentation. Similarly, companies with no obvious connection to the Space Race such as banks, local town councils and even shopping malls have sponsored medals celebrating achievements in space, usually when these have coincided with an important event in the life of the issuer such as a major anniversary.
Since the early 1980s, the Kennedy Space Centre has issued quite large runs of coins to mark the Space Shuttle missions. Although these are interesting in their own right, they are not usually made of any valuable metals and so are of relatively low value right now. Similar releases have marked missions relating to the Hubble Space Telescope and the various Mars unmanned projects. Perhaps these too will become antiques some time in the future !
Many countries have issued coinage with space themes, most notably The Isle of Man, The Marshall Islands and Kazakhstan.
