SkyMan gets a 1964 Red Book... and goes for a Walk. (CAUTION: Many pictures).
SkyMan
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First off, Best Wishes for a Happy and Healthy New Year to All of You!!!
Since November 2018, Heritage Auctions has been selling the Neil Armstrong Family Collection. It is a group of thousands of items, ranging from historical items flown on Apollo 11, to old magazines, musical records, coins etc. etc. The vast majority of stuff sold is in this latter category... the sort of stuff that would either be thrown out, or boxed up and put in your cellar, attic or garage. The vast majority of it I would call junk, but as the saying goes, one man's junk is another man's treasure. Each of these items came with a Letter of Authenticity (LoA) from CAG (Collectibles Authentication Guaranty), a branch of CCG. NGC is also a branch of CCG.
Over the last 2+ years there have been hundreds of coins sold from the collection. Most of them are what we would call junk silver, or 90% silver; common date heavily circulated silver Morgans, Peace dollars, Walkers, Franklins, Mercurys etc. When these items first came up for sale I was interested in purchasing one or two, until I saw what they were going for. Even heavily circulated common date Franklins were going for $250 - $350. Rarer date or MS63 Morgan uncirculated coins (still not particularly rare material) were going in the $850 - $1,250 range. 1964 Kennedy halves in MS64 would typically go for $450. Also, given how the LoA was written, while the item probably was handled by Neil Armstrong, it was not positive.
In the most recent Heritage Space Auction, November 2020, one item from the Collection appeared, a 1964 Red Book. Of all the thousands of items from the Collection, and of all the hundreds of coins, this was the sole numismatic book. I had to get it, and was surprised to win it for a quite reasonable price of $250 (commission included). It was the only Armstrong Family Collection item I bid on in the 2+ years of auction. (There were certainly other items from his space missions that I was interested in, I just realized that they were WAY out of my budget).
From looking at the indentations in the Red Book pages, for example as if something was resting on top of one of the book pages, or as if a paper had been placed on top of a book page and then written on/marked up, with the underlying book page getting indented, it appears to me that Armstrong's three favorite Types of coins, or at least the most visited pages, were Buffalo nickels, Walking Liberty half dollars and Morgan dollars. Also, I've never seen any come up in his collection, and given their cost I rather doubt the 1960's Armstrong could afford them, but the book falls open to the page covering very early $2.50 gold coins, although there are no indentations/marking on the opposing pages.
Given all the hundreds of coins in the collection, I can't imagine Armstrong handling any coin for any length of time, except maybe for a few favorites. OTOH, given coin collectors, I'm fairly certain that Armstrong spent at least a moderate amount of time perusing and using the Red Book during his few leisure hours during the 1960's.
In my mind, I picture Armstrong using the Red Book in two ways. First, either at his home office desk, or at the kitchen table, with some of his coins laid out, looking from coin to Red Book and back again. Second, Armstrong sitting in a comfortable chair or lying down in a couch just reading or perusing through the Red Book. In both cases I picture him with a beverage near at hand.
So here is Neil Armstrong's 1964 Red Book. (All following pictures are HD, so if you drag them to your computer, and click on them they should blow up to full size).
In order to protect some identifying info, I'm including just a crop of the LoA.
Here's a scan of some Morgan dollar prices from the 1964 Red Book. On the previous page it states, "Perfect coins without blemishes are generally worth 50% more than listed values".
For those of you interested solely in numismatics, that is the end of this thread.
Up until February 1984 all astronauts doing spacewalks (as opposed to walking on the Moon) had been tethered to their spacecraft so they would not float off into space. (Spacewalks are also called EVA's; extra vehicular activity). At the beginning of 1984 NASA had plans in the near future for astronauts to retrieve and repair old satellites, so they needed astronauts to be able to go out to retrieve the satellites. NASA had designed a flying backpack called a Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU) that moved an astronaut around by firing bursts of nitrogen gas.
One of the most famous photos of the whole Space Shuttle program was of Bruce McCandless II doing the first untethered spacewalk in history, during the flight of STS-41B in February 1984. McCandless was using a MMU. After the mission, McCandless kept the mission flown EVA checklist. Arguably this is one of the most important checklists of the Shuttle era, and given that it was for the first untethered EVA in history, it is also one of the prime historical documents ever for spaceflight. McCandless died in 2018. I was lucky enough in late 2019 to win the STS-41B EVA checklist.
Here are some pictures of the checklist. (Again these are all HD, so if you drag them to your computer, and click on them they should blow up to full size).
Here you can see a page dealing with equipment prep for both the Shuttle Middeck (more or less where the astronauts went into the airlock), and Airlock prep.
Here the astronauts are donning and checking their spacesuits, called the EMU, which is NASAspeak for Extravehicular Mobility Unit. MET stands for Mission Elapsed Time, e.g. how long since launch.
Egressing (exiting) from the Shuttle and donning the MMU. On the left you can see a column that details the spacewalk timeline.
In this one, in the middle of the page, you'll note, "Translate to 150' from Orbiter and return. Photo Opportunity". Translate is NASAspeak for move.
Unless you've been living under a rock someplace for the last 35 years, you've probably seen the picture associated with this "Photo Opportunity".
On the same checklist page above, you'll see in the same "column" under the "Translate to 150'...", towards the bottom of the page, "Translate to 300' from Orbiter and return. Photo Opportunity". This was the basis of a well known picture, but not as well known as the above picture, of McCandless hanging out in space. To the best of my knowledge, this is still the furthest an astronaut has spacewalked away from a vehicle in space.
So that's it for now, a numismatic item and a space artifact for my space collection.
If you're interested in McCandless talking about his EVA, here is a short interview with him about it.
https://spaceanswers.com/space-exploration/interview-furthest-space-walk/
Comments
That's some really cool stuff. My daughter to got to do some zoom classes with Leland Melvin last summer and really enjoyed them. Space artifacts are really neat items that document/preserve amazing feats.
Had Neil written anything in his Red Book?
edit to add additional space experience no one cares about, but came to mind: Shannon Lucid graduated from my high school and is the aunt of one of my classmates. She spoke to our class a few times and was great. When we built the new HS building they named the science wing after her, which was awesome.
Back in the 1980's, we sent our 14 yo son to Space Camp in Huntsville as a birthday present. He had a great time, he cried when we picked him up. I am naturally spaced out about the expanse. Peace Roy
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As always, enjoyed the space related info./pixs you provide here.
Great info and pics! Thanks!
I bid on a few Armstrong personal items...really wanted his personal copy of Time Mag with him on the cover but the bids just went beyond my price range. I did get a Frank Borman signed copy of his photo 'Earthrise' taken from Apollo 8 as it emerged from the dark side of the moon...just got it back from the framer on Sunday.
that auction was full of spectacular items
Fascinating. I really appreciate your passion for space related memorabilia and how it ties into numismatics. Thanks for sharing it with us!
Dead Cat Waltz Exonumia
"Coin collecting for outcasts..."
Thanks for the great pictures and historical information. Always interested in the space program. Fantastic human achievements. Cheers, RickO
Great thread. Thank you!
"Got a flaming heart, can't get my fill"
Intetesting read.
Is it still possible to use fingerprint dusting powder ala CSI style to retrieve Neil Armstrong's prints?
That would involve a new level of worship!
"Got a flaming heart, can't get my fill"
Did they auction off the golf club?
EDIT: Actually looked it up and it was Alan Shepard who hit the golf balls on a later flight. I blame it on 50 years of drinking.
+1
+2. Wonderful area of interest and collecting.
BTW this is one and perhaps the only area of collecting that I see as a "no brainer" for the future. At least I hope so, such rare and important historical artifacts. Wish I were younger. Thanks for sharing as you often do SkyMan. I imagine you spend many hours re-reading the checklist and similar items you have posted.