NGC has just certified a gold medal flown aboard the Apollo 16 moon mission. This Robbins Medal is pedigreed to Apollo 16 lunar module pilot, Charles M. Duke, Jr., the tenth man to have walked on the moon. While a number of medals have been flown on space missions, this is one of only two Apollo 16 gold medals, documented thus far, to have gone in the lunar module to the moon’s surface. It has been graded MS 65 by NGC.

The Robbins Company privately struck medals as mementos for the astronauts to take aboard their missions into space and they were not originally intended for a wider audience. Robbins began this medal series, often simply referred to as “Robbins Space Medals” in 1968 to commemorate Apollo 7, the first manned Apollo mission. Since then, they have been issued for all manned space missions without interruption. The medals have been struck for all Apollo, Skylab, Soyuz, Space Shuttle, International Space Station stints and long duration space stays. Most were struck in high relief, and depict the mission emblem and crew member names on the obverse and launch, landed and return dates on the reverse. Read Full Story