Apollo 8 Aluminum Medallion

Here is the short story on these. This medallion was produced and distributed in a show appreciation from Nasa and the Apollo 8 crew to all of the sub contractors employees and other public or governmental personal whose support was vital to the Apollo program. An in depth article was written by James C. Spilman and published by Coin World news letter on 9-29-71, appearing on page 3. Colonel Frank Borman the commander of Apollo 8 carried with him in his Personal Preference kit a 1/2 inch diameter sphere of 2219 Aluminum. Post flight the sphere was cut in half (the other half remained in Huntsville)and transported the Alcoa plant in Davenport , Iowa. At this point the specimen was added into a smelting furnace of 1100 Aluminum which was then poured into ingots. Barco Mint of New Orleans received the ingots ,cut the planchets and struck 200,000 Medallions. As Spilman states in his article " Following the striking, all of the alloy scrap and extra metal was destroyed so that its unique identity was forever lost. Certification of these facts dated June 30,1969, was signed by Mr. John V. Barr,Jr., the president of Barco Mint of New Orleans ,Inc." Enjoy.