Commems Collection Classic: What If? Phantom 1959 Robert Goddard / Space Pioneer

Here's a "phantom" whose details might have been mixed up.

During an August 1959 Executive Session of the Senate Committee on Banking and Currency, reference was made to a proposed gold coin (possibly switched to a silver piece) to be struck in honor of Robert Goddard.

Dr. Robert H. Goddard - Circa 1920

(Image Source: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division. Public Domain.)

Robert Goddard, a physicist and inventor, was born in Worcester, Massachusetts in October 1882; he died in August 1945 of cancer. He is often referred to as the "Father of Liquid-Fueled Rockets" due to his pioneering research and development in the field, including the launch of the first liquid-fueled rocket - technology still used today. He was also a primary architect of multi-stage rockets, receiving a patent for such design in 1914 (he received a patent for a liquid-fueled rocket at the same time).

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration ("NASA") named its Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland after Goddard in 1959. The Center "is home to the nation's largest organization of scientists, engineers and technologists who build spacecraft, instruments and new technology to study Earth, the sun, our solar system and the universe." (Goddard Space Center web site)

The Executive Committee did not discuss the coin proposal, however, as no formal bill proposing it had been introduced to that point - none would be in the future either.

It is possible that the Committee was confused at the time, mistaking the Congressional Gold Medal bills then being considered in Congress vs. a commemorative coin proposal. The Congressional Gold Medal was authorized on September 16, 1959 via Public Law 86-277.


For other of my posts about commemorative coins and medals, including more " Phantom What If?" stories, see: Commems Collection