It is rare occurrence that items we offer are of strong interest to numismatic and non-numismatic buyers alike, and rarer still when an item can truly be described as one-of-a-kind. This is undeniably such a piece, and is one of the most historically significant pieces of American numismatics that has come to market in recent years. Further, this is the first time it has been offered for sale at public auction, and it may well be the last.

In the early days of the space program, it was not uncommon for astronauts to take personal items of nominal value with them as souvenirs on their missions. NASA formalized this practice by allowing astronauts to take a small bag known as a Personal Preference Kit (PPK) wherein each item was validated by NASA. The contents of these bags were limited by necessity and design, and were generally quite private. Only once have the contents been made public, that of Wally Schirra on the Gemini 6A mission; the handwritten inventory reads:

"Navy wings, 33rd Degree Masonic ring, 1950D coin, dime-sized memento, 5c-sized memento, miniature Gemini s/c, Fla. hunting license, 20 gold medals, 5 silver medals, various flags, and 15 GTA-6 patches."

These personal items were not intended for sale by the astronauts, but were instead given to friends and family. In recent decades, various items from some of the PPKs have been offered for sale to eager collectors of space memorabilia. Of the few known coins that have flown in space, most are pieces of fairly low numismatic value, and only a handful have ever been offered at public auction. The present lot is clearly very much unlike any other, with an obvious numismatic value to collectors, and is further made unique in that it was not included in an astronaut's PPK but was surreptitiously slipped into the inflight medical kit, without NASA's prior knowledge.

Accompanying documentation and correspondence reveal that flight surgeon Howard A. Minners placed this cent, owned at that time by William Ulrich, in the inflight medical kit of the Gemini VII spacecraft at his request, an action that Minners later described as "just one more public relations type of thing done in the space program."

Another letter to William Ulrich, dated January 25, 1966, and written on NASA letterhead, certifies "[T]hat a 1793 United States wreath cent...was carried into space in the Inflight Medical Kit aboard the Gemini VII spacecraft" and is signed by Command Pilot Frank Borman, Pilot James A. Lovell, and by Howard A. Minners, M.D. An additional letter from Minners to Ulrich dated March 9, 1966, and written on NASA letterhead accompanies an 8 x 10 color image of this same coin inside the medical kit that Minners indicates was taken on December 18, 1965, approximately four hours after the Gemini spacecraft landed.

To read the complete lot description, see:
Exceptionally Important and Desirable 1793 Wreath Cent (www.stacksbowers.com/BrowseAuctions/LotDetail/
tabid/227/AuctionID/6109/Lot/42/Default.aspx)