Space related NEWP, antique mall find

asheland · May 18, 2020 6:06AM

I thought this was really cool, especially for a buck!

Jimnight · May 18, 2020 6:18AM

That is very cool!!

Oldhoopster · May 18, 2020 6:43AM

Cool pick up, especially at that price.

grip · May 18, 2020 7:08AM

Wonder if it will tone.

ricko · May 18, 2020 8:01AM

Nice, and for a buck, hard to beat. Cheers, RickO

BryceM · May 18, 2020 8:07AM

That's pretty cool. I'd love to know the whole story about how this made its way to a private mint. 10,000 grains = 1.4 lbs. Even today it costs about $10,000 to get a pound of payload into low-earth orbit...... much, much more to the moon and back.

For the shuttle program each astronaut was allowed 1.5 lbs of personal items. Does anyone know how this worked on Apollo?

291fifth · May 18, 2020 8:48AM

I believe that originally was an item that was given to members of the Franklin Mint Collector's Society at no charge. In 1971 Franklin Mint issues were a very popular item with many collectors. I seem to recall other such mini-medal issues related to the space program but don't know if they were issues that were membership bonuses of items they had to purchase. I'm fairly certain that there was an Apollo 11 mini-medal issued in 1969.

What other issues do you know of?

Downtown1974 · May 18, 2020 8:51AM

Nice little find you have there!

BLUEJAYWAY · May 18, 2020 8:53AM

Super, super, cool pickup. Always pays to go picking.

amwldcoin · May 18, 2020 8:56AM

If anyone here knows the whole story of that it would be @SkyMan

tokenpro · May 18, 2020 10:12AM

This Apollo 14 mini-medal was also struck in platinum housed in a similar style holder.

SkyMan · May 18, 2020 11:48AM

@amwldcoin said:
If anyone here knows the whole story of that it would be @SkyMan

It is exactly what it says it is, a mini-coin that contains some silver that went to the Moon. It is believed 129,000+ of them were minted.

On space missions, each astronaut is allowed to carry some amount of items in their PPK (Personal Preference Kit). Normally this would entail a variety of small items... jewelry, school pennants, flags, coins etc.

During Apollo missions each astronaut was allowed 5 pounds of weight in their PPK that went to lunar orbit in the Command Module (CM), and the two astronauts that went to the Moon's surface each were allowed 1 pound more in another PPK that landed on the Moon's surface in the Lunar Module (LM). One would assume the 2 astronauts that went to the lunar surface shared some of their LM PPK weight with the lone astronaut who circled the Moon. So the silver would have been amongst the 15 pounds allowed in the CM.

Now, that was amongst a "standard" Apollo mission. Apollo 14 was a little different in that Alan Shepard, one of the original Mercury 7 astronauts and the first American to fly in space, was the mission commander. Needless to say, he was buddy buddy with Deke Slayton, another Mercury 7 astronaut, the head of the astronaut office, and the guy who signed off on PPK lists. Given this, it was well known that Shepard carried a lot more souvenir stuff than the "normal" astronaut.

Amongst the items Shepard (and crew) carried were 195 Franklin Mint Apollo 14 silver medallions, 65 in each of their CM PPKs. (200 medallions had been minted, but it is believed 5 were given out before the mission). These medallions weighed on the order of .9595 oz per medallion. I have been unable to find the silver content of the medallions, but assume anywhere from .90 - .999 silver, with the most likely being .90. Depending on the source, 25 - 50 medallions were returned to the Franklin Mint after the mission, which I believe was the Franklin Mint's "payback" for creating these medallions in the first place, e.g. I believe the crew did not have to pay for the other 150 - 175 pieces. Roughly 25 of these medallions were melted down to create the 10,000 grains of silver flown to the Moon for the mini-coin.

The Apollo 14 Franklin Mint medallions crop up RELATIVELY frequently in space auctions, maybe once or twice a year. Heritage auctions holds 2 major space auctions a year, so you can find some of the medallions and their prices in Heritage's archives.

Here's a good article on the Apollo 14 medallions, and it includes a little bit of info about the above mini-coin.

spaceflownartifacts.com/flown_apollo14_franklin_mint_medallions.html#article