Authorized under the Apollo 11 50th Anniversary Commemorative Coin Act of 2016, this five-ounce silver dollar is the largest coin the United States Mint has produced for general sale in the modern commemorative program. The curved concave/convex format — shared across the entire 2019 Apollo 11 series — required the Mint to retool pressing equipment, as standard planchet handling machinery couldn't accommodate the dome geometry without cracking blanks at the edges.
Neil Armstrong's bootprint in the lunar regolith, reproduced on the reverse, was sourced from NASA archival photography taken during the July 1969 EVA. The footprint itself is preserved exactly as left — lunar soil has no weathering mechanism to disturb it.
Authorized under the Apollo 11 50th Anniversary Commemorative Coin Act of 2016, this five-ounce silver dollar is the largest coin the United States Mint has produced for general sale in the modern commemorative program. The curved concave/convex format — shared across the entire 2019 Apollo 11 series — required the Mint to retool pressing equipment, as standard planchet handling machinery couldn't accommodate the dome geometry without cracking blanks at the edges.
Neil Armstrong's bootprint in the lunar regolith, reproduced on the reverse, was sourced from NASA archival photography taken during the July 1969 EVA. The footprint itself is preserved exactly as left — lunar soil has no weathering mechanism to disturb it.