1/2 Dollar - Elizabeth II Apollo 12

Apollo 12 landed on the Ocean of Storms in November 1969, four months after Apollo 11, and remains notable for a near-catastrophe that almost scrubbed the mission entirely: lightning struck the Saturn V twice during ascent, temporarily knocking out the spacecraft's fuel cells and sending mission controllers scrambling for a little-known SCE switch setting that saved the flight. Pete Conrad and Alan Bean recovered 74 pounds of lunar samples and retrieved components from the Surveyor 3 probe that had been sitting on the lunar surface since 1967.