Tuesday, 19th July 2005 (3074 views)

The United States Mint has been given the green light to make a new series of gold and silver coins that contain metal from historic spacecraft.

The US House of Representatives has passed the "NASA and JPL 50th Anniversary Commemorative Coin Act" which authorises the Mint to produce the ten new coins.

They will produce a $50 gold coin with an image of the Sun and nine $1 silver coins each representing one of the nine planets in the solar system.

Due to be issued in 2008, the coins will commemorate the 50th anniversary of the founding of NASA and the opening of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

"Minting coins is a distinctive way to honour 50 years of dedicated service by the men and women of JPL and NASA," said representative Adam Schiff.

Metal from spacecraft, which have been involved in space missions, will also be used for "symbolic inclusion" in the coins.

The bill has called to make these coins a limited edition, so only 50,000 of the $50 coins will be minted and 400,000 each of the silver coins.

The gold coins will be sold for $100 and the silver coins for $11, with the first $1 million raised going to the NASA Family Assistance Fund to help the families of those who have died or been injured while working for NASA.

And the sky's the limit as far as John Culbertson, the man who introduced the Bill, is concerned: "The astounding discoveries of America's first 50 years in space make it very likely that when the 100th anniversary NASA/JPL coin set is issued in 2058, we will be celebrating our first missions into interstellar space."

 

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