I Love Space Themed Coins

As the title above suggests, I love Space Themed coins. I have a lifelong passion for spaceflight and have other hobbies that tie into that. As a result, I gravitate towards space themed coins.

I would love anyone to post other space themed coins. I am always looking to discover coins with this theme that I am unaware of.

So, this coin is one of my favorites. This is a 10 Mark Clad proof produced by East Germany at their Berlin mint in 1978. It commemorates the 1978 joint Soviet-East German spaceflight that took place that same year.

The business strike version of this coin is pretty common with a mintage of 748,000. But the proof is rare with a mintage of only 2,200.



A little about the joint USSR-GDR mission.

In the later 1970s, the USSR was operating their own orbital space station Salyut 6. To support the long duration missions, the USSR had to launch periodic manned flights to the station. The reason for this was that their manned spacecraft, the Soyuz, only had a 90 day lifespan. If the USSR wanted to conduct longer missions (and they did), spacecraft swap flights would have to happen to ensure the long duration crew always had a fresh spacecraft on the station.

With the upcoming US Space Shuttle and promise by the US to fly astronauts onboard from allied nations, the USSR decided to beat them to it and fly their crew members from their allied nations as part of their "Interkosmos Program." Basically, they would give one of the 2 seats on a week long capsule swap flight to a crewmember from an allied communist country. This began in 1978 with the flight of a Czech crewmember.

The third such flight was Soyuz 31. It launched on August 26, 1978, and carried East German cosmonaut Sigmund Jahn into space (along with a USSR commander Valeri Bykovski). He became the first German citizen in space. They successfully docked with Salyut 6 and spending a week in orbit. Bykovski and Jahn returned to Earth on September 3, 1978, onboard Soyuz 29.

This coin commemorates Jahn's mission.

Sigmund Jahn would eventually become a Major General in the GDR Air Force in charge of training future cosmonauts. He died in 2019 at the age of 82.

 

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Me too...total space nerd here!!!
I've got a nice handful of space themed coins...here's an unusual one in gold.
Side note, it's also a rare deliberately one sided coin/medal. I looked one up that's out of the holder, the reverse has a little Danbury logo stamp and the word "Solid Gold".

 

That's a cool coin and a nice write-up!
I'm a fan of space coins too.
My favorite is the Kazakhstan Silver & Tantalum series, posted here:
https://www.cointalk.com/threads/kazakhstan-silver-tantalum-space-series.366359/

 

Australia had a few Moon coins in 2019 if I remember right it was a 5c, dollar, and some commemoratives.

 

Here is a new one released this year. It is from Austria and has a unique curved shape. I couldn't capture the photo so am using one from the linked Coin World article below.



https://www.coinworld.com/news/prec...plores-milky-way-on-2021-proof-silver-20-euro

 

I have some Kazakhstan space-related coins, but the ordinary copper-nickel versions. Kazakhstan is home to the Baikonur Cosmodrome, the primary launch site for the Soviet/Russian space program, so space-related coins are actually relevant to Kazakhstan's history. Here's one honoring the Apollo-Soyuz test flight:

The Venera 10 probe, which explored the planet Venus:

And Buran, the Soviet version of the Space Shuttle which was not very successful:

 

The copper-nickel versions are cool too! Starting in 2020 they also added an "in-between" version (still base metal but in a "proof-like" finish). It's the top right in the photo below (with top left being the tantalum and bottom being standard circulation quality).




And the coins certainly are relevant to Kazakhstan; they even have one with the Cosmodrome:

 

They did. Here is a page that describes them:
https://www.ramint.gov.au/publicati...rlds-first-dome-shaped-coloured-nickel-plated

 

I know most people hate plates stuff, but the nickel plated with the colored moon is a beautiful coin.

I also just rembered Marshall Islands have several space related one with the shuttles and man on the moon and some more.

 

You have touched on a favorite theme of my collection. This is just a taste. I have a bunch of tokens and medals as well.

Solomon Islands



Fujairah




Tonga



Turks & Caicos






Misc.

 

I like meteorites and space coins! Some beautiful foreign coins, thanks for posting, here's my contribution:

 

I just came across these the other day when I was browsing Krause. I'd never be able to afford them at almost $2,000, but I think they're really neat. From Fujairah in the UAE.

 

Somewhere I have a Marshall’s islands coin with the space shuttle on it. It’s late 80s I think and clad…about as big as a silver dollar.

 

A lot of ancient coins have globes representing the cosmos. Two coins from Constantine I with BEATA TRANQVILLITAS reverses with a globe on altar with three stars over.






Sol with a globe is also very common theme.

 

I don't have many space-themed coins, mostly because I collect a lot of 19th century items, but I did pick up one of the best commemoratives the US Mint has put out in years, the Apollo 11 anniversary coin:



The other closest numismatic item that I have handy is a Chinese bill from 2015 that celebrates their space program. They also issued a coin, but I haven't picked one up yet:




The corresponding coin, which I don't have, looks like this:

 

This is the best I have.

 

Oh some nice things here. I love that Chinese note.

 

I think they did two but at least discovery from the top of my head.

 

I’m gonna look for mine tonight.

I just googled it though. They did a 1988 with the shuttle Discovery launching and it looks like a 1991 with Columbia in orbit.

 

I tend to like these colorful/plated/gilded coins too. Some mints do a very good job and it looks nice. These might not be for everyone, but plenty of people do like them.

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And here are the Marshall Islands space coins:
https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces11642.html

https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces13434.html

https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces19827.html