PCGS - I am a professional oil painter. My interest in art and all things visual informs or dictates many of my numismatic acquisitions. I specifically purchase mint error coins based on their aesthetic appeal.
Certain mint errors are so unusual that, statistically, their production would be considered as improbable as holding a winning lottery ticket. Certain errors one would think simply don't exist or couldn't be possible. Yet, the world of error coins is replete with bizarre off-center strikes, flipover-double-strikes, die caps, brockages, finned rims, and more. But that's not precisely what this story is about. This story is about an error coin that remains the harbinger of the Space Age.
This story begins with the Saturn V Rocket. It's about NASA's Apollo 11 mission, the fulfillment of a proposed goal by President John F. Kennedy, and ultimately the firing of a cluster of five Rocketdyne F-1 engines assembled in a quincunx formation beneath the behemoth Saturn V Rocket, a three-stage rocket.
Though I know we've recently read of Chinese lunar news, I'm not writing to discuss the space-giddy era we live in. With the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announcing and conducting ever-greater feats, the promise of the privatization of spaceflight, dominated by SpaceX and Blue Origin, I wanted instead of looking into the future, to take a look back at the past, spurred in my mind by the discovery of a coin that singularly embodies our country's and our species' spacefaring roots.
Perhaps you expected a commemorative coin. This coin is not a commemorative coin. This coin was not created to celebrate the success of a mission or foster the dreams of the future. In fact, this coin was not even intentionally produced. The production of this spectacularly symbolic coin was a complete accident. This coin should never have been minted. This coin is so unusual that it recalls in one's mind both the words of John F. Kennedy and of Neil Armstrong.
The "Moon Kennedy" is my nickname for an error coin I discovered and purchased through Heritage Auctions. It was one of these "gotta have it" scenarios. You may know what I mean. The "Moon Kennedy" I speak of here is a
Kennedy half dollar with a dime-planchet indentation on the coin's obverse. The unusual, centered indentation has an angled rim, angling away from the base of the indentation, like an impact crater.
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Posted 05/24/2021 2:54 pm
