SkyMan has been building a "set". (Caution, many pix).

[SkyMan]

There have been a lot of space flown numismatic items that have hit the market in the last couple of months. Three gold coins have cropped up. Two of them, both quarter eagles (and both with condition issues), flew on Gemini 4. One, a 1907 Liberty, went for $4,930 (all prices include commission), and the other, a 1910 Indian, went for $3,346. Having these two coins come out bummed my jets, as up to that point in time I was only aware of 1 flown quarter eagle on Gemini 4... my 1902. C'est la vie.

 

There was also a, theoretically, flown to the lunar surface on Apollo 17, $20 Saint Gaudens. I don't know the date, as it was mounted with the reverse side showing. This coin got withdrawn at the last minute, as there were some issues swirling around in the background.

 

Robbins medallions (which started being carried aboard missions with Apollo 7) have gotten (for the most part) smoking hot. Prices are escalating dramatically, particularly on the Apollo 17 medallions, which a couple of years ago you could have bought for ~ $20,000, while the most recent one to cross the block went for ~ $65,000.

 

A variety of astronaut signed (but unflown) $1 bills have hit the market. Last week I bid ~ $5,500 (which was comfortably over the high end estimate) on a neat silver certificate signed by Neal Armstrong, Alan Shepard and Chuck Yeager. The bill ended up going for ~ $9,300.

 

For those of you interested solely in numismatics that is the end of this thread (although you can see a picture of a signed 1969 star $1 bill later in this thread).

 

I was recently at the Spacefest convention in Tucson. It is a nice mix of astronauts, vendors, artists and lectures by people in the space exploration field. At the convention I had a chance to meet Jim McDivitt, the commander of Gemini 4 (and Apollo 9), and talk to him about how many gold coins he brought on the mission. Here's a picture of us with my flown $2.50 and a picture he signed.

 

 

Obviously I was interested in the flown gold coins recently at auction, but didn't bid on them, and I was interested in the Armstrong/Shepard/Yeager bill, but didn't have to have it above a set price. I guess like most coin collectors I've gotten interested in a specific series. Only in my case the "series" is the Apollo 12 mission. It was the Second Landing ever on the Moon. Because it was second, and because the TV camera got fried, it never got the notoriety it deserved. Here's a picture of the crew.

 

 

I have gotten friendly over the last several years with D_ck Gordon, one of the two remaining crewmen from the flight. He is a total hoot to hang around with. I've also gotten to spend some time with Alan Bean, the other remaining crewman, who is also a very nice guy. It is highly amusing to watch them give each other grief. Here are the 3 of us discussing a picture. D_ck is in the foreground and Al is next to me.

 

 

Anyhow, since the start of the year I've managed to win at auction 4 flown items from the flight. Three of them were flown in lunar orbit in the Command and Service Module (CSM), and 1 was part of an instrument on the Lunar Module (LM). I also managed to pick up some signatures from Al and D_ck at the most recent Spacefest convention.

 

One of the items I won was D_ck's Apollo 12 comb. I suspect there are more Apollo flown combs out there, but astronauts did not need them in a weightless condition, so currently it is one of only two known combs to have flown to the Moon. had a full head of hair while Al and Pete Conrad, the Commander of Apollo 12, were more follicly challenged. D_ck brought his comb along to use and to give the other two grief about. I don't use it often, but it is fun to use one of only two combs known to have flown to the Moon. Here's D_ck talking to Al about the comb.

 

 

The second item I got was the Operations checklist. It is about 150 pages long and tells the crewmen how to do the assorted tasks they are supposed to do. It is not light reading, but it's very interesting to flip to a given section and check it out. It's on 8" X 6" cardstock. Getting full Apollo checklists is getting much harder (and pricier) these days, as some chowderheads buy them and then sell them page by page.

 

 

Here's a look in the index to give you an idea of subjects covered in the checklist.

 

 

The next item I got was a Beta Cloth checklist-scissors leg assembly used by D_ck. It is roughly 12" X 9.5". The larger pouch would hold a checklist, while the smaller pouch would hold the scissors. It was strapped around the astronauts leg outside of his spacesuit and inflight coveralls. NASA retained title to astronaut spacesuits and inflight coveralls, so it is very rare to find a flown items that an astronaut wore.

 

 

The final flown item I won this year was a light bulb assembly, 1.75" X 1.625", that was used in the Crewman Optical Alignment Sight (COAS). The COAS was used by the mission commander to determine where he was going to land when he was descending to the Moon, and was used by him to rendezvous with the CSM when ascending from the Moon. It is VERY rare to find LM pieces of equipment, particularly from Apollo 12. Basically the lightbulb assembly would light up markings within the COAS so that the commander could tell what the assorted angles and distances were.

 

 

Here are more detailed images of the COAS. It was located above the commander's window (the left hand window).

 

 

 

Finally, in April I went to the Santa Clara coin show. I am not normally a bill collector, but when I was browsing the show I saw a 1969 star $1 bill. Apollo 12 landed in 1969 (as did Apollo 11), so I decided to get the bill and have it signed by D_ck and Al at Spacefest. Al likes to draw stars. Oftentimes in his comments on a picture he will add a star. In the picture he signed for me right before doing this bill he added a star in the commentary, so I mentioned to him about star bills. He was interested in it, and decided that D_ck needed many stars, specifically 5 stars, for the top military rank. Needless to say, he gave D_ck some excrement about it too...

 

 

 

 

It's been fun getting to know these guys. They really are some of America's Best.

[Tradedollarnut]

Spoon. Funny name for a fly boy.

[Brol]

Always enjoy reading your posts, Skyman!

[kryptonitecomics]

Very interesting my friend!!!

[grip]

Always enjoy reading your posts, Skyman!

 

1+

[BKW]

Nice!

[yonico]

Very interesting. And so cool you could hang out with the original crewmen.

 

Also, very amusing to see how the guy's name was censored again and again

[SkyMan]

Thanks guys, glad you like this stuff.

 

Oh, and I also recently managed to pick up this item. It is an Atlas-D hydraulic vernier cylinder and servovalve. It's about a foot long. The Atlas-D was the rocket that launched the Mercury spacecraft in 1962-3. The vernier rockets blasted out to the sides of the Atlas-D, stabilizing the rocket. If you look at the picture you'll see that various of the parts are not only screwed in, but also wired in too. This was a back up system to try and keep the parts where they were supposed to be under the intense shaking of launch. You can see the vernier engines in action right above the main engines in the Aurora 7 launch picture.