½ Dollar - Charles III Friendship 7

Charles III "Friendship" issues from Samoa are private mint products — legal tender by arrangement but designed entirely for the collector market, with no meaningful circulation history. The Friendship 7 designation references John Glenn's Mercury capsule from February 1962, the mission that made him the first American to orbit Earth. Glenn completed three orbits before splashing down in the Atlantic, a flight that carried enormous political weight at the height of the Space Race.

NASA retained Glenn's capsule; it is now at the Glenn Research Center in Cleveland.