At the April 8 eclipse, I learned something I did not know — the US is minting some cool $1 coins with space themes. The first “themed” coins of the “American Innovation® $1 Coin Program”, the Delaware coins, had a space theme, in fact. It was Annie Jump Cannon.
Other coins from the program with space themes are the Maryland coins (the Hubble Space Telescope) and the Alabama coins (the Saturn V rocket). More coins are to come.
I learned about this because Fr. Timothy Sauppé, the organizer of the faith and science eclipse retreat that I was at, was handing them out to all present. Yes, he was giving out free money!
The Mint made a video about the Cannon coin:
Here is what the Mint has had to say about these coins:
The American Innovation $1 Coin representing Delaware honors internationally recognized astronomer Annie Jump Cannon, who invented a system for classifying the stars still used today. Despite a hearing impairment, she advanced her education, gained recognition as a pioneer in science, and became the first woman to receive an honorary doctorate from Oxford University.
Cannon was born on December 11, 1863, in Dover, Delaware. Her father, Wilson Cannon, was a state senator, while her mother, Mary Jump, taught Annie the constellations at a young age and ignited her interest in the stars. Cannon graduated from Wellesley College, where she studied physics and astronomy.
In 1896, Cannon was hired as an assistant at Harvard Observatory under astronomer E. C. Pickering. She joined a group of female astronomers nicknamed “Pickering’s Women,” who worked to document and empirically classify stars. As she began her work, Cannon found the conventional systems of classification to be ineffective for her purposes. She combined two known models to create her own system based on the spectral characteristics of stars and personally classified more than 225,000 stars. Cannon worked as an astronomer until just weeks before her death in 1941 at the age of 77.
The American Innovation $1 Coin representing Alabama recognizes the invention of the Saturn V rocket. The Saturn V rocket was developed to support the Apollo space program for human exploration to the Moon. NASA launched 13 Saturn V rockets between 1967 and 1973.
The Saturn V rocket was designed and built at the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, under the supervision of aerospace engineer Wernher von Braun. The “Heavy Lift Vehicle” was 363 feet tall, the height of a 36-story building. During launch, the rocket generated 7.6 million pounds of thrust – more power than 85 Hoover Dams.
NASA launched the first Saturn V rocket for the Apollo 4 mission in 1967. The last Saturn V launched in 1973, without a crew, to carry the Skylab space station into Earth orbit.
The American Innovation $1 Coin representing Maryland honors the Hubble Space Telescope.
Developed by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and launched in 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope is one of the largest and most versatile space telescopes. It is also the first designed to be serviced in space by astronauts. Teams at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and the Space Telescope Science Institute–both located in Maryland–manage the telescope.
Positioned above the distortion of Earth’s atmosphere, Hubble has an unobstructed view of the universe. Its four main instruments observe in the ultraviolet, visible, and near infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Data transmitted by Hubble has helped refine estimates of the age of the universe, trace the growth of galaxies, identify planets beyond our solar system, study the planets within our solar system, identify black holes, observe the birth and death of stars, and many other scientific discoveries.
You can get some coins and start using them! It costs, though — a 100-coin bag, with shipping and handling, will set you back about $125.
