Tuesday, 11th December 2007 (1846 views)

A gold $50 coin will be included in a new set of ten pieces released by the US Mint to honour the work of Nasa and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in celebration of the space administration's 50th anniversary.

In the collection, the gold coin will represent the sun, while nine other coins will coins will represent the eight planets in the solar system plus Pluto, which was decommissioned from planet status last year.

"Minting coins is a distinctive way to honour 50 years of dedicated service by the men and women of JPL and Nasa," said representative Adam Schiff.

Some 1,000 complete sets of a new coin collection – called the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Discovery Collection – have been minted, with plans for future sets to include pieces of metal from Nasa spacecrafts and segments of meteorite.

According to the space agency, 30 designs have been approved for future coin sets, which will focus on discoveries made by the HST.

Under the Nasa and JPL 50th Anniversary Commemorative Coin Act, the Secretary of the Treasury has been permitted to mint and issue $50 gold coins to symbolise "50 years of exemplary and unparalleled achievements of Nasa", according to the Congressional Research Service.

 

« Back to the stories

 

The news feeds on this site are independently provided by Adfero Limited © and do not represent the views or opinions of the World Gold Council.