Apollo 8
Year: 1968
Mint/Issuer: Barco Mint/NASA MFA Office
Mintage: 200,000
Flown metal: Half-inch sphere of aluminum
Additional Information:
The inspiration for this medallion was conceived by Dr. Preston T. Farish, director of the Manned Flight Awareness office at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Along with NASA Astronaut Frank Borman, Dr. Farnish oversaw the development of the artwork which was prepared by the Graphics Art Dept., also at the Marshall Space Flight Center.On the flight of Apollo 8, Commander Frank Borman carried a half-inch diameter sphere of aluminum (type 2219) alloy in his "Personal Preference Kit" along with other personal item he wished to take with him. This particular alloy was chosen because in represented many of parts used in many of the critical structural parts of the Saturn V rocket. After the mission, the sphere was returned to the Marshall Space Flight Center. For fear of loss, the sphere of Lunar-flown metal was cut in half. One of the pieces remained safely in Huntsville, while the other was flown to the Alcoa plant in Davenport, Iowa. Under the watchful eyes of NASA and Boeing representatives, it was added in a smelting furnace to a molten batch of aluminum (type 1100) alloy. The ingots products were then transported to the Barco Mint of New Orleans. At the mint, a total of 200,000 medallions were struck and packaged in bags of 500 each. All left-over scraps from the minting process were certified as 'destroyed' by John Barr, the president of Barco Mint on June 30th, 1969. The medallions were then shipped to the Boeing Company in Huntsville (who were responsible for most of the subcontracting arrangements). From there they were distributed to the principal Saturn contractors and NASA agencies which had anticipated in the Apollo program. Among the numerous companies receiving the medallions for distribution were: Boeing, Chrysler, Mason-Rust, IBM, North American Rockwell, General
