Astronauts support Apollo 11 coins

The Apollo 11 lunar mission patch (top) inspired the reverse design of the Eisenhower dollar 1971-1978 (bottom). Will it also inspire a 2019 commemorative coin program?

Apollo 11 astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins have joined supporters calling for a 2019 coin program to commemorate the 50th anniversary of their mission to the moon.

The two sent letters to members of both houses of Congress to urge support.

H.R. 2726 calls for four coins, a gold $5, silver dollar and clad half dollar and a five-ounce silver $1 to mark the first landing on the moon.

Mintages would be no more than 50,000, 400,000, 750,000 and 100,000, respectively.

Surcharges of $35, $10, $5 and $50, also respectively, would raise money to be divided one-half to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum’s “Destination Moon” exhibit, one-quarter to the Astronauts Memorial Foundation and one-quarter to the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation.

The legislation has more than enough co-sponsors to be brought for a vote by the House of Representatives. At a current 298, it is eight more than the minimum two-thirds required.

In the Senate, where two-thirds are also required to be co-sponsors before a floor vote, the current number is just 11, according to Dieter Jobe, who works for the legislation’s author Rep. Bill Posey.

If the legislation is not passed in the lame duck session of Congress before the new members are sworn in in 2017, the process will have to begin all over again.