From the personal collection of Apollo 14 moonwalker Edgar Mitchell-a flown Franklin Mint medal carried into lunar orbit aboard the Command Module Kitty Hawk during the Apollo 14 mission. The medal, number 0063, approximately 1.5" diameter, features a raised Apollo 14 mission insignia on the front, with the reverse depicting the lunar surface with raised letters at the bottom reading: "Spacecraft/ Kitty Hawk & Antares/ Destination/ Fra Mauro-1971." Medallion is housed inside a small cardboard holder, notated and initialed in blue ballpoint by Edgar Mitchell, "Flown on 'Kitty Hawk,' No. 0063, EM." A staple is missing from cardboard holder. Condition is mint state.
Accompanied by a signed letter of authenticity from Mitchell, in part: "This document is to certify Apollo 14 Franklin Mint Medallion, serial number 0063. The accompanying medallion was flown aboard the spacecraft Kittyhawk on the Apollo 14 expedition to the moon which launched January 31, 1971." Each of the three Apollo 14 crew members carried 65 of these medallions in their PPKs. After the mission, fifty of them were returned to the Franklin Mint and melted down toward the production of Apollo 14 commemorative coins that were sent to Franklin Mint subscribers in 1971. Compared to the 303 Robbins medals flown on the mission, these Franklin Mint medals are considerably scarcer with just 145 possible examples.
It should be noted that Franklin Mint medals were not made available to all of the astronauts like the Robbins Medals. The bulk of these, if not all of them, remained with the crew, thereby limiting their availability even further. And when one considers that any of these that may have come from Alan Shepard or Stuart Roosa, astronauts who died in 1994 and 1998, were most likely given away without any type of certification, this due to their untimely deaths which preceded the realization that certification was important. So, from a rarity perspective, the only Apollo 14 who certified Franklin Mint medals was moonwalker Edgar Mitchell.
*This item has been pre-certified by a trusted third-party authentication service, and by placing a bid on this item, you agree to accept the opinion of this authentication service. If you wish to have an opinion rendered by a different authenticator of your choosing, you must do so prior to your placing of any bid. RR Auction is not responsible for differing opinions submitted 30 days after the date of the sale.
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