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Buzz Aldrin's Flown Apollo 11 Gold Medallion
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History
There are few positive events that command the attention of the entire world.
The missions that got man to the Moon certainly did. And as the days get further from these actual events, people are again embracing their importance and historical significance. It is no wonder then that artifacts from the space race have become hot commodities! Collectors, investors and historians are wanting to own a piece of this history and are creating quite a market for artifacts from the space race. The demand for space race memorabilia has seen a tremendous increase over the last few years.
Gold and silver coins and trinkets usually come to mind when you hear stories of the old treasure ships, and buried pirate treasure. But, not all the treasure is at the bottom of the ocean. The astronauts of the Apollo era carried gold and silver coin-like medallions aboard their spaceships, too. These were The Robbins Medallions, small coins about the size of a half dollar with the mission emblem struck in high relief on the front. The reverse of a medallion displays the names of the astronauts, the launch, landed and return dates, and sometimes the spacecraft names and Moon landing site. These medallions were struck for each of the Apollo missions as personal mementos for the astronauts to commemorate their respective historic missions.
The spacecrafts were very small, barely allowing room for the astronauts to stretch. Weight was a particular concern, so the astronauts were permitted very few personal items to take aboard. There were only three commemorative items that were taken aboard a mission - Crew Patches, Commemorative Postal Envelopes, and The Robbins Medallions.
The Robbins Medallions are among the rarest and most important of the artifacts that accompanied man to the Moon because they are documented as flown and because they depict the mission facts and emblem. The Crew Patches and Commemorative Postal Envelopes are beautiful too, but unless they are accompanied by a letter from one of the astronauts, certifying that they were flown and from their collection, it is difficult to be sure if they were. NASA is still having replica patches produced today for collectors. There are also many other items being collected that were flown, like pieces of the spacecraft, spacesuits, flight manuals and even left over freeze-dried food packages. Beware though as many of these items are somewhat generic to a flight, and once again are only as good as their documentation. However, as long as the serial number checks out, you can be sure that a Robbins Medallion was flown.
Information about The Robbins Medallions as well as any personal items that the astronauts took aboard with them was guarded. NASA honored the privacy of the astronauts, but was also sensitive about any potential negative publicity that could arise if it was thought that astronauts were taking souvenirs into space that they could later sell for profit.
The history of the medallions and the mission emblems is interesting reading in itself. The crews either designed or helped to design their mission emblems. There is much meaning in these designs and a lot of thought that went into each emblem design and the naming of the spacecrafts. For example, the Apollo 12 emblem pictures a Clipper ship sailing around the Moon because all of the crew were Navy. The background pictures four stars, one for each of the crew and one for C.C. Williams, a member of the original crew that died in an air crash and was then replaced. The Apollo 15 medallions are struck from silver treasure that was salvaged from the 1715 Spanish Plate Fleet, a fleet of treasure filled ships, that sunk off the Florida coast near Cape Canaveral. Consider the incredible trail that this silver followed! The Spanish had looted it from Latin America and attempted to return back to their Spanish homeland when it sunk to the bottom of the ocean during a devastating storm. It was then salvaged and taken to the Moon and back 256 years later.
The Robbins company of Attelboro, Massachusetts began producing the medallions for the astronauts starting with Apollo 7. They also produced the medallions for Skylab, Apollo-Soyuz and they continue to strike them today for all of the STS Space Shuttle missions. Robbins would work with each crew to create their medallion design. A mission would carry between 80 and 450 of the sterling silver medallions, and between 3 and 7 medallions made of fourteen carat gold. The medallions were only available to the astronauts. They were produced as keepsakes for themselves, their families and friends.
And they were ordered at their own expense.
The gold medallions are not likely to see the light of day though, and any gold medallions that do come up for sale will likely sell at great premiums to their silver counterparts when it is realized that there was usually only one gold medallion struck for each member of a particular crew. One of the gold medallions from Apollo 11 could fetch six figures, maybe even low seven figures at auction by some estimates. There are only three in the world. An artifact that was flown aboard Apollo 11 may be compared to one that was aboard Christopher ColumbusSanta Maria, or the Mayflower. If Mark McGwire baseball can get $3,000,000, what is the rarest artifact from one of the world most important historical events worth?
The Robbins Medallions traveled right beside the legends and heroes of the space race during their moments of glory. They are the medium able to transcend the holder back to the moment. Knowing that these medallions were right there gives you the chills!
We definitely take for granted what was accomplished. I think to some extent it is because most of the players are still alive. But when you consider the big picture, the accomplishment itself, which had been a dream in the minds of men since they first looked up into the night sky, it may eventually be remembered as the most significant event of the 2nd millennium itself.
Memories of the Apollo Space Program and the interest in it will be long lived. As history looks back upon the pioneering days of space exploration, the accomplishments of the Apollo Program, with all of its engineering mastery, will certainly be among the most important and significant events of the 20th century.
Considering the small size of the Apollo spacecrafts, how few personal items the astronauts were permitted to take with them, and how interest in the Apollo Program continues to grow, it is likely that artifacts that were flown aboard these spacecrafts will continue to become more scarce and in demand. Today people are collecting most anything that was flown aboard the Apollo missions, including parts of the spacecrafts and spacesuits, pages of flight manuals and heat shield fragments.
Imagine the value and significance of an important artifact from Christopher ColumbusSanta Maria or one from The Mayflower. We have learned from experience that artifacts from important historical events will always be in demand by historians, collectors, investors, museums, and governments.
The Robbins Medallions were among the astronauts personal possessions that were taken on these missions. They are one of few documented commemorative items that were actually flown. And, unlike most other flown items, these medallions are engraved with the history of a mission, including its emblem; the dates; the names of the crew; and, in some cases, the names of the spacecrafts and the landing site on the Moon.
Collectors and historians have only been able to get bits and pieces of information about the medallions through Freedom of Information Act filings, by contacting NASA and the Astronaut Flight Office, and by conducting personal interviews with astronauts and others who were close to the space program. No one has put together the entire story until now. With their clouded history uncovered and their numbers documented, the medallions may indeed find their place among the most coveted artifacts from the Apollo era.
It began with Walt Cunningham and Apollo 7. Cunningham wanted a special memento of his flight into space. He worked with a jeweler in Titusville, Florida to have a commemorative medallion made for himself with the emblem and details of the Apollo 7 mission. As the jeweler began the task, other astronauts heard about Cunningham idea and wanted to order one or more of the medallions. As the requests increased, the jeweler contacted The Robbins Company of Attleboro, Massachusetts, a manufacturing company that specializes in casting and stamping. He gave the responsibility of producing the actual medallions to The Robbins Company, while he served as the middle man for Apollo 7 and 8. The Robbins Company took complete control over all projects after Apollo 8.
Cy(ril) Baker, then the administrator of the Astronaut Flight Office in Houston, Texas, helped the astronauts with the logistics of ordering the medallions, returning them for engraving and finishing. The astronauts submitted their order requests for the medallions and their payments to the Astronaut Flight Office. The Robbins Company was paid by the Astronaut Flight Office Fund.
It is important to note that these medallions were commissioned by the Astronaut Flight Office, not by NASA. They were produced primarily as personal mementos for the astronauts and were never intended for the public. Only astronauts affiliated with the Astronaut Flight Office were able to purchase them. The purchases of these medallions by the astronauts were private transactions.
Information about the medallions was guarded, like most other things that the astronauts took aboard with them. This was partly to protect the astronauts privacy, but also because NASA was sensitive to any potentially negative publicity that could result if it was reported that astronauts were profiting from selling flown items. After all, these missions were funded with public money. In fact, because of a few incidents, it eventually became policy that the astronauts were not to commercialize the contents of their PPKs (Personal Preference Kits) at the risk of being released from the flight program.
The Robbins Company would generally work closely with one of the astronauts from the crew to create their flight medallion. The medallions were struck two to three months prior to the flight. The serial numbers and flight dates were not engraved prior to the flight. Except for Apollo 7 and 8, the medallions were not finished or polished until after they were flown. Because the medallions on Apollo 7 and 8 came back scratched, it was decided that the medallions made for future missions would be finished after their return to Earth.
The medallions were tightly packed together and stored in a locker aboard the command module, except for a small number of them that may have been put in a PPK to take to the lunar surface. Upon their return to Earth, the medallions were sent back to The Robbins Company for the finishing process. This is when the launch, landed, return dates and serial numbers were engraved. After they were finished, the medallions were put into their own individual plastic boxes for safe storage. The boxes were made of two pieces of interlocking plastic that hinged together. They were 2 x 2 inches square. The bottom piece of the box was black plastic and the top piece was clear. A dark gray square foam padding was put inside the box for the medal to securely rest on. A small white sticker with the serial number was put on the bottom of each box. These boxes were not flown. The finished medallions were then sent back to the Astronaut Flight Office for distribution to the astronauts who had ordered them.
July 16-24, 1969
Neil A. Armstrong - Michael Collins - Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr.
Command module: Columbia Lunar module: Eagle
The Apollo 11 emblem design began with the idea of using the image of an American eagle, which was introduced by back-up crew member Jim Lovell, Jr. The design was created by Michael Collins, the mission command module pilot.
A photo of a bald eagle coming in for a landing had caught his eye. An olive branch was added to the talons of the eagle to symbolize that we came in peace. He added the lunar surface as the eagle landing site, as well as a small Earth in the background.
Later it was determined that Collin drawing of the Earth showed the sunshine hitting the Earth from the wrong direction. The Earth rise over the lunar horizon would actually shadow top to bottom rather than the pictured side to side. No names were on the patch, as Collins believed the mission represented the effort of thousands and was larger than any individual.
FLOWN GOLD MEDALLIONS (Population data)
Apollo 07----> 1* (actual number struck is unknown)
Apollo 08----> 3 (all are pins, and each contains a diamond)
Apollo 09----> 3
Apollo 11----> 3
Apollo 10----> 4 (each contains a diamond, and one is a pin)
Apollo 16----> 5
Apollo 13----> 6
Apollo 14----> 6
Apollo 15----> 6
Apollo 17----> 6 (two have one diamond, one has three diamonds)
Apollo 12----> 7 (five are pins that each contain a diamond)
Total number of flown gold medallions = 50
There is little doubt that in historical retrospect, the Apollo Program will stand out above all of the others and will be most fondly remembered by history. They attracted worldwide audiences, created a lot of excitement, and sometimes, intense drama. Most importantly, they were the first to leave the Earth to take man to another world. There are thousands of items that were made to commemorate the Apollo missions over the years. Collectors have begun to sort through them to decide which will still be considered important to collectors in the future and which have the best potential for growth. Today short list of most desirable items include artifacts that were flown aboard the actual missions and autographs of the astronauts and the other key contributors that made the Space Program possible.
There are many flown space items, from small pieces of heat shields and tow lines, to control knobs and pages of flight manuals. Some have been marketed nicely, offering signed certificates of authenticity to go along with them. There are also unique items that were flown, like waste collection devices, freeze-dried food packages, and parts of spacesuits. These are certainly interesting items, and for the die-hard collector they may be fantastic things to own. But will they stand the test of time? Since many of these items are somewhat generic to a flight, they must come with credible certification.
Finally, there are the ultimate flown items. The personal possessions of the astronauts, like dog tags, PPKs, and even tools that they used. Many of these items are beyond the reach of most collectors and will likely be owned by a museum some day. The Robbins Medallions were among these personal possessions. Their beauty lays not only in what they represent and where they have been; but, also as works of art. These beautiful coin-like artifacts have the highlights of the mission history artfully sculpted and struck in precious metal; both gold and silver.
The Robbins Medallions resemble, physically and symbolically, treasure from the exploring and pioneering sailing ships that took man across the oceans centuries ago. Gold and silver treasure usually comes to mind when recalling those historic days of treasure ships and pirates. The ships that man sailed into space carried similar treasure. They were not intended to end up in the marketplace, but the Robbins Medallions have fetched impressive prices at auction over the last few years. This is despite the fact that so little was known about them at the time.
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