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V11 2008 INDEX
E-SYLUM ARCHIVE
FIFTY YEARS OF NASA SPACE COLLECTIBLES
Happy Birthday, NASA! The agency has created or inspired a
number of numismatic collectibles over the years. This new page pictures a
number of them. -Editor
The National Aeronautics and Space
Administration, or NASA as it is more commonly referred to today, began
operations 50 years ago on Oct. 1, 1958. Charged with leading the nation's
civilian research into air travel and space exploration, it was the latter
that caught the public's imagination, which in turn led to a wide desire
for commemorative and actual pieces of NASA's exploits in outer
space.
In honor of NASA's anniversary, collectSPACE
offers the following colorful tour through the agency's first 50 years as
guided by the space collectibles it inspired.1961: The first NASA astronaut to fly was Alan Shepard but his carry-on luggage was limited to little more than a U.S. flag. Gus Grissom, who followed Shepard, packed his pockets with miniature Mercury capsules and dimes (like this one; Liberty Bell 7 was the name he bestowed his spacecraft, which sank after splashdown and wasn't recovered until July 1999).
This coin (or more appropriately, medal) flew on
Gemini 12, the last mission of the program that taught astronauts how to
walk and meet each other in space (a.k.a. "EVA" and "rendezvous"). They
were "go" for the Moon, or so they thought...To read the complete article, see: NASA@50: Fifty years of space collectibles (http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-100108a.html)
Wayne Homren, Editor
The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org.
To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor at this address: whomren@gmail.com
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