America's second human space flight launched Virgil Grissom 118 miles into space for a 15-minute ballistic trajectory that would land him in the Atlantic Ocean 302 statute miles downrange from Cape Canaveral. During Gus' wait after landing the hatch inadvertently blew off the capsule causing water to fill the spacecraft. As Gus exited and the capsule sunk to the bottom of the ocean there emerged a legend in the space collectible community, the Liberty Bell 7 dimes.
As Gus struggled in the water for survival, he carried two rolls of mint condition 1961 Roosevelt Dimes as souvenirs of his flight into space. Meanwhile, at Cape Canaveral, the McDonnell Aircraft Corporation employees awaited the arrival of the Liberty Bell 7 capsule. They had a secret cache, a roll of Mercury Dimes that they smuggled and hid inside the capsule. They would be waiting for a long time for as they waited for the return of the capsule, the Liberty Bell 7 had begun an hour and half long three-mile descent to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. Those Mercury Dimes would wait on the bottom of the ocean unbeknownst to collectors for the next 38 years.
The recovery of the Liberty Bell Seven has given rise to renewed interest in Gus Grissom's first flight into space. As the only manned spacecraft to sink to the bottom of the ocean, the Liberty Bell Seven has the distinction of being the only manned spacecraft to fly above Earth's atmosphere into space and journey to the depths of the Earth's oceans. With the renewed interest in the Liberty Bell Seven journey has come a new rush to own flown pieces of the actual capsule or memorabilia carried in the capsule during the flight.
One type of memorabilia that has interested collectors has been of numismatic value in the form of money. The Liberty Bell Seven dimes have become legends. What types of dimes were involved? What do examples of each dime look like? Why were they on board? How many dimes flew? We will, through interviews and personal knowledge, try to answer these questions.
Two types of dimes were carried on the flight of Liberty Bell Seven. The first type of dime was the 1961 Roosevelt Dimes that were authorized and carried by Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom. There were two rolls of 50 dimes carried in Gus's spacesuit during the flight into space. The dimes obtained by Gus prior to his Mercury flight were in mint condition. According to Grissom's son, Scott Grissom, Dr. William Douglass prompted Gus to carry mementos on board the flight, since Alan Shepard only carried a US flag and his USNA academy ring as his personal mementos on board during the flight of Freedom Seven.
Gus had a special ankle pouch (seen taped to Gus’ left leg in the photo) made that carried not only the two rolls of dimes, but other small mementos including miniature Mercury space capsules. These items safely rode into space on July 21, 1961, and returned safely to Earth with the reentry of the Liberty Bell Seven. It was back on Earth that things began to turn dangerous. After splashdown as Gus was completing checklist items, the capsule hatch malfunctioned and was jettisoned causing water to flood into the capsule. Gus quickly exited the capsule. Lt Jim Lewis, pilot of the prime recovery helicopter call sign “Hunt Club 1,” moved into rescue the capsule while, Lt Wayne Koons, pilot of second recovery helicopter worked into position to rescue Gus from the water. During that time Gus's spacesuit was leaking air out of the suit from an open oxygen inlet valve causing him to sink. As Gus was to say later, "I had brought along two rolls of fifty dimes each for the children of friends, three one-dollar bills, some small models of the capsule and two sets of pilot's wings. These were all adding weight that I could have done without." Gus was rescued along with the dimes by Koons’ helicopter. The capsule, due to the added weight of water, was cut lose by Jim Lewis and his helicopter and sank 16,000 feet to the floor of the Atlantic Ocean.
Gus and Betty Grissom created a Stirling silver charm the was attached to the Roosevelt dimes via a security ring sized to fit the dime. The Stirling silver charm was engraved with the spacecraft’s name on one side and the date of the Liberty Bell Seven's launch, July 21st, 1961, on the opposite side. The charm and the security ring ensures the family provenance. After Gus’s death in Apollo 1, Betty Grissom, Gus’s wife, was the custodian of the remaining dimes and has either placed dimes in space auctions or sold them to individual collectors over the years. Since Betty death, her family is now custodians of the Roosevelt dimes.
The Roosevelt dime shown in this article came directly from Betty Grissom in 2003. As part of the purchase price, Betty signed a supplied certificate of authenticity (COA) and her son, Steve, photographed Betty with the COA. If you look closely at Betty Grissom’s left thumb you will see both the dime and the charm linked together. While the certification process grew more sophisticated as the value of flown space artifacts increased, the Roosevelt dimes that he took in his spacesuit on the Liberty Seven 7 flight, inadvertently, made Gus Grissom the father of the space memorabilia pursuit, because those space flown dimes lead to the start of new field of collecting of objects flown in Space.
Meanwhile, the Liberty Bell 7 spacecraft lay at 16,000 feet at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean for the next 38 years. Waiting to be found with another surprise that few knew about inside the capsule. Curt Newport, as expedition leader of the Liberty Bell Seven Project Team, spent fourteen years searching for clues as to the whereabouts of the 11-foot-tall capsule that was lost at sea. On May 1, 1999, the lost spacecraft was found. The Liberty Bell Seven was discovered on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean near the Bahama Islands and on July 20, 1999, at 2:20 in the morning, the capsule was recovered from the ocean that claimed it.
After the capsule was recovered aboard the recovery ship, The Ocean Project, and the capsule explosives were disarmed, the crew did a cursory inspection of the capsule interior. As Curt pumped water out of the capsule, as cameras left behind by the bomb disposal crew kept recording the scene, Max Ary of the Kansas Cosmosphere, a partner in the recovery effort, searched through the muck in the bottom of the capsule and found a handful of dimes. Max Ary, an expert on the historic flight, wondered where did these dimes came from? Who put them in the capsule?
This led to the second type of dime that is related to the flight of the Liberty Bell Seven, the Mercury dimes. I talked with Max Ary about the dimes found in the wreckage of the Liberty Bell Seven. Max explained in an interview, "(I) do remember that the media put out the word that we were finding the Mercury headed dimes in the capsule as we took it apart. We then started to receive emails from several former McDonnell technicians essentially saying....’We didn't just put dimes in there, we also rolled up some dollar bills to put in the wiring harness.’ Guenter (Guenter Wendt, Mercury pad supervisor) initially questioned that his guys would have done such a thing for it totally went against the strict discipline he enacted and was so proud of in the White room. But it was not too many weeks after the word got out about the dimes and dollar bill, that Guenter attended a reunion at the Cape with his old McDonnell colleagues. As it turned out, the guys that put the dimes and bills onboard were from a different shift under another supervisor.”
Max Ary went on to say, "I think it was interesting that both Mercury and Roosevelt dimes were carried on the flight. As it turned out, both were quite symbolic. Gus's Roosevelt coins were all dated 1961, which was symbolic for the year of the flight. The Mercury dimes were obviously symbolic for the program name, but all carried different dates. As you may remember, some of the dimes were also engraved with initials to further identify them. The interesting thing is that the last I knew, none of the technicians that put the dimes and bills onboard has ever attempted to reclaim them. It was almost as if they had been caught doing something that was against policy, and even though it was 40 years ago, still don't want to take total credit for it."
The Mercury dimes shown here contrast with the near mint condition of the Roosevelt dimes Grissom carried with him. These dimes show fading that only time, use and a long duration underwater can produce. Eventually the restoration efforts would uncover 52 Mercury dimes of various dates inside the capsule. Forty dimes are in the custody of the Kansas Cosmosphere as owner of the Liberty Bell 7 spacecraft. Two dimes were gifted to the Virgil I. Grissom Memorial. One was for display in the museum, and one was for fundraising purposes and later sold via eBay in May of 2006.
In 2001, material via the Christies gallery in New York, Curt Newport released the first Mercury Dime from his collection of Liberty Bell 7 material that he received in recognition for the years or research and as leader of the undersea expedition that recovered Grissom’s spacecraft. Curt placed a microscopically etched serial number on each dime and placed each one into a clear coin case. Curt created a two-sided framed display with an image of the capsule, a recovery project team patch, and his signature for added provenance for the dime’s origin.
Curt supplied added provenance during a space convention in Washington, DC in 2003. The new certificate of authenticity Curt created and printed on the Liberty Bell 7 letterhead which Curt signed in June of 2003 at the convention. Curt also posed with the Mercury dime display at the same show.
What started out as a small numismatic souvenir for an astronaut’s family and friends flown on America’s second manned space flight has blossomed in two rare and valuable objects from the Space Race. Each dime has a unique story. One type of dime carried by an astronaut who knew the value of a memento from a momentous event. One type of dime was smuggled into the Liberty Bell 7 capsule by the ground support launch crew prior to liftoff. One dime survived the flight into Space and the near drowning of the astronaut as the capsule was sinking. One dime sank with the capsule and would wait 38 years to be recovered after the Liberty Bell 7 was salvaged from the deep. Either dime is valued by collectors for the story that is attached to it.
These dimes have become popular with collectors due to their cross collectability. Coin, space, and maritime collectors have an interest in adding one or both dimes to their collections. The sales of these space flown and underwater salvaged dimes in the collecting community helped make Gus Grissom the informal “Father of Flown Space Artifact Collecting” within the community. Gus, encouraged by others, took one hundred Roosevelt dimes and several small Mercury capsule pins which turned out to be the start of carrying objects as souvenirs into Space by the US astronauts that still occurs to this day.
Comments