Mr. Lincoln Goes to Mars posted by Electric Peak Collection

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I wonder how much that penny is worth now

 

My office mate at work recently posted a photo on our office door. It's a picture of part of the calibration target for the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera at the end of the robotic arm of NASA's Curiosity outside-affiliatelinksnotallowed. The target includes a 1909 Lincoln cent!

 

Working at the Space Telescope Science Institute on the Hubble Space Telescope project, I have received some little gift items: things like mission patches and photos flown on the space shuttle

and actual pieces of MLI (multi-layer insulation) removed from HST during servicing missions.

 

There probably are space-flown numismatic items out there (recall the scene from The Right Stuff of Gus Grissom spilling coins after his flight & rescue), but now there's one on Mars. We're probably more likely to win a Power Ball jackpot than to see that cent on Earth again. And if it were brought back, it would most likely end up in a museum. But I wonder what it could fetch on the open market.

 

If I find out any more about the coin, I'll let you know. Anyway, here's that photo.

 

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