posted 04-27-2019 05:25 AM               

They minted 7,507 of the silver (in a blue cardboard backing) and 2,490 of the bronze. I have seen claims these contain "flown metal." Has this ever been proven?

posted 04-27-2019 08:21 AM               

Of the 200 serialized Franklin Mint Apollo 13 medals 20 were flown, 19 unknown serial numbers were given out to NASA employees, one was returned to the Franklin Mint.

Of the 4,967 Apollo 13 sets, 3,698 were replaced with the medals containing the flown metal of the one coin. No other Franklin Mint Apollo 13 medals contain flown metal.

posted 04-30-2019 05:20 PM               

There were 400 Apollo 13 flown Robbins medals

posted 05-01-2019 07:26 AM               

At the time, press reports then stated that he mentioned 20 medals actually flew. How many were given back to the Franklin Mint remains a mystery — from the one referenced by Lovell to Low (which would make sense, given that he told Low about one flown one) or a few (as some of the Mint’s marketing material seems to imply). Perhaps some of the "friends and support crew" had associations with the FM. Either way, in the press reports, the balance of the 20 flown medals not given to the Franklin Mint, it was said, was given out to family, friends, and support crew.

The other 180, while not having flown, were within hours of being flown and intended to fly, but were pulled for weight reasons. They still have Mattingly's name on them and are some of the few items intended to fly with the original crew's name on them. Lovell then hung on to these medals for decades, until making them available to collectors.

The exact number of flown is certainly between 1 and 20, and I would assume based on all of the documentation and newspaper research I have seen, that 20 is probably the right number, especially given the widely published account after the congressional hearings on the matter and reported in the press at the time. Also, the one medal (and only one medal) being returned to the mint was also widely reported at that time. That being said, I don't think we'll ever know how many were actually returned to FM (because of the friends and family issue of the other 19), but officially the number is just one. Therefore, it is safe to say that the Franklin Mint medals that are reported to have flown metal in them have a very, very minuscule amount of flown metal in them.

So going back to the original question of this thread, yes, it has been verified that flown metal was included with these coins via memos, documentation, congressional testimony, and newspaper reports. The only issue outstanding is how much; but certainly, flown molecules of metal are in there.

Of more interest to me is reading the official NASA statements in the press — given by Alan Shepard — after the Apollo 14 investigations that because of these issues, silver medals will never fly again. This was reported as an official NASA view/statement. And yet, we all know, that from then on and to this date, silver Robbins medals flew. I guess Shepard meant to say no more Franklin Mint medals, but then that might beg the question, what about others, and then they would have had to go into the Robbins tradition.

Don't forget, this was a very ugly time for NASA in Congress, with a lot of representatives wanting further cuts to NASA budgets, and a swift end to the Apollo program. Much of the confusion is a result of the extraordinary pressure being put on from these external sources to the guys who always believed their personal items were a private matter. It was only when the whiff of commercialization and profiteering came into play (by the Franklin Mint, and not by Lovell or Shepard), that all hell started to break loose. This, of course, was taken to a whole new level of persecution a few months later with Apollo 15. But the agitation at NASA, commercialization, shifting stories, and lack of clarity by Congress about these commercialization issues eventually took on a life of its own, unfortunately.

Much of the internal documentation at NASA was not even FOIA available until recently once the passing of HR 4158 stopped the attempts to replevin Mitchell's DAC camera, Lovell's checklist, and several other items from a Heritage Auction a few years ago.

I've been researching these medals for the past decade or so. I love items like this with a great backstory with a hint of mystery and trouble to them. As a collector of space flown numismatic items, I actually have one of the few (if only) Franklin Mint serial number pairings from Apollo 13 and 14. I own Edgar Mitchell's flown Franklin Mint Apollo 14 medal, serial number 112, along with a handwritten flight cert from Mitchell; I also was able to acquire from Lovell the Apollo 13 Franklin Mint medal, serial number 112, certified by Lovell to be one intended to fly, as well as the container that he kept all of the medals in for the past few decades. I love having the pairing of those medals for display purposes, just given the story of the one flight they were able to fly, and the one that didn't.

posted 05-01-2019 08:57 AM               

At least one maybe 20 flew on Apollo 13. It is unknown what serial numbers were flown.

At least one maybe a few were returned to Franklin Mint and used for the Project Apollo sets and possibly the SCI-7 Apollo 13 medals.

Some of the possible 20 flown were given out to friends and support crew.

posted 05-01-2019 03:08 PM               

I also own a set with accompanying letters of authentication. I am the custodian of Apollo 13 Franklin Mint medal no. 118 and Apollo 14 Franklin Mint medal no. 63.

posted 05-01-2019 07:17 PM               

Rich and I did a lot of research on the matter.

I might add that I bought an Apollo 14 FM medal from Edgar Mitchell. We were sitting in his home at the time. Edgar commented that he liked the FM medal and thought it was prettier than the Robbins medallion.