A Trifecta Of Silver Half Dollars And More Coins With Space Mission Stickers

My "go-to" bank yielded more treasure in the two boxes of bank-rolled half dollars that I purchased yesterday. I found a Walking Liberty half dollar, two Benjamin Franklin half dollars, and a 1964 Kennedy half dollar in the first box -- plus four 40% silver coins. Three of them have stickers honoring manned space missions: i.e., Gemini 7, Apollo 7, and Apollo 8. (Two weeks ago, I described finding six silver half dollars with similar stickers in a box I acquired at the same bank.) The second box contained three more 40% silver half dollars (including another one with an Apollo 8 sticker) and a deeply-toned 2005 proof.

Fifteen years ago, I had the good fortune to meet Bill Anders, the Apollo 8 crew member who took the iconic photograph of the Earth rising above the lunar horizon while he orbited the Moon. I was participating in an overnight geology field trip in Colorado. I sat next to him at dinner and introduced myself. He responded "I'm Bill Anders" -- a name that I didn't recognize. I asked if he was a retired geologist. "No," he responded. "I'm a retired astronaut." I thought he might have flown on SpaceLab or an early Space Shuttle mission. "On what mission did you fly?" I asked him. "Apollo 8" he replied modestly. Yikes!! I respected his privacy the next day, but I chatted with him at one of the outcrops we examined.