The Gemini Fliteline Medallions

by Howard C. Weinberger

Although the astronauts were focused intensively on the success of their missions and staying alive, the idea of carrying a few mementos aboard their historic space flights for self, family, and friends was something they did still consider and had prepared. The first manned space missions, the six Mercury missions, flew odds and ends like dimes, paper money and a few personal items.

Gemini 3 'Fliteline' medallion

Beginning with the Gemini program, someone, still unknown, took the initiative to have small coin-like medallions made for the flights. They were designed with the mission emblems on the front and mission dates engraved on the reverse. Of the twelve Gemini missions, ten of them, Gemini 3 through Gemini 12, were crewed.

There is a mission medallion produced for each of the crewed Gemini missions. Some of the medallions have surfaced over the years in their original boxes that have the name Fliteline on them. In the absence of hard evidence to date, the collecting community has therefore elected to refer to these Gemini medallions as The Fliteline Medallions.

The medallions do not have a makers mark. The specifics seem to have been lost with time and there is no certainty as to who the maker was. Other than the Fliteline clue, the Balfour Company has been the only other name to come up in a few conversations with some of the astronauts, but nothing has been reliably confirmed. The Balfour Company is probably best known for making school class rings. Unfortunately, circumstantial evidence and the testaments of the astronauts are the only way to provide even this basic background about these enigmatic, yet very important medallions.

Facts

• The Fliteline Medallions are not numbered.
• There is no population data on the Fliteline Medallions.
• There are sterling medallions and gold-plated over sterling medallions, which are both marked as sterling.
• There are brass metals and what look to be silvered brass medallions, which may in fact be another type of base metal. No metal analysis has been done to date.
• The same company produced them all.

The best we can figure out and what we do know

The fact that the medallions are not numbered is frustrating to collectors because that leads to the issue of not knowing how many were produced. In discussions with a number of astronauts, it is accepted that a relatively small number of them were produced, probably between 100-200 of each. They were purchased through the Astronaut Office and available only to the astronauts. These were not open to purchase by other NASA employees or contractors. They were a private affair and all arranged within the Astronaut Office.

They should all be considered as flown medallions. Any of these medallions that have been offered thus far have come directly from the astronauts directly or their families, and all have stated that they were flown. I agree with this conclusion based upon another point. The Robbins Medallions, the next generation of flown medallions, that took over for the Fliteline medallions, began with the first crewed Apollo mission, Apollo 7. The history and data for the Robbins Medallions is solid and reliable. All Robbins Medallions that were produced for Apollo 7 though Apollo 14 were flown. There were no unflown medallions. Apollo 7 and the Robbins Medallion tradition began in 1968. The Gemini missions operated in 1965 and 1966. It seems logical that the Fliteline Medallions would have set the precedent, therefore acceptable to believe that all were flown.

Another point to consider is the very small size of the Fliteline Medallions. Weight was always a major consideration on all crewed missions. The Fliteline Medallions are approximately a quarter to a third of the size and weight of the upcoming Robbins Medallions. As the programs matured and experience was gained, weight restrictions seemed to ease a bit. In fact, it is interesting to observe that the Robbins Medallions became progressively larger as each Apollo mission flew.

Conjecture

There has been some commentary written suggesting that there were 100 medallions struck for each mission; 90 in sterling and 10 in gold-plated silver, but that has yet to be definitively confirmed.

As to why some were made of sterling and others not was probably a monetary issue. The astronauts paid for these out of their own pockets, and in those early days, they were not making much. My own personal conclusion is that who ever was in charge of handling a mission order was given a choice by the manufacturer as to what metal they wanted them struck from. Obviously, a metal like brass as compared to silver would be less expensive. I believe it may have been that simple. To date, I have not found any mix of metals used for the same flight. In other words, all medallions for a mission were either made of silver or brass or other base metal. For instance, all Gemini 5 medallions found thus far have been sterling. There have been no brass or base metal ones discovered. And, all Gemini 8 medallions found thus far are brass or base metal and no sterling ones have been reported.

Observation

I have noticed that under magnification, the brass or base metal medallions seem to be covered with a thin coat of clear lacquer. This was probably applied to avoid tarnishing or oxidation.

The following is the listing of Gemini Fliteline Medallions and their compositions known to date. Both silver and gold plated or colored versions are believed to exist for all the missions:

• Gemini 3 Sterling
• Gemini 4 Sterling
• Gemini 5 Sterling
• Gemini 6 Brass or base metal
• Gemini 7 Brass or base metal
• Gemini 8 Brass or base metal
• Gemini 9 Sterling
• Gemini 10 Brass or base metal
• Gemini 11 Sterling
• Gemini 12 Brass or base metal

Conclusion

Although this report is anything but conclusive, it is the first attempt to reach some conclusions about these great and historic medallions.

The Gemini Fliteline medallion lucites

A lucite presentation containing a complete set of Gemini 'Fliteline' medallions, one of 24 such lucites produced

It is worth mentioning here the existence of lucite presentations that were produced some time after the end of the Gemini program. Each lucite contained a complete set of ten flown silver-finish Fliteline medallions from Gemini 3 through to Gemini 12.

There were apparently twenty four of these lucites produced. Given that we have seen several of these lucites sold at auction from the collections of Gemini astronauts we can safely assume that 16 of these lucites went to the astronauts who flew on the missions: Grissom, Young, White, McDivitt, Cooper, Conrad, Borman, Lovell, Schirra, Stafford, Scott, Armstrong, Cernan, Collins, Gordon and Aldrin.

Another of these lucites sold at auction came from the collection of Deke Slayton, and it seems likely that Alan Shepard was also a recipient. In 2014 another example came to market that had been presented to Life magazine editor Edward Thompson, and in 2021 a set from Christopher Kraft was sold at auction.

The distribution of the remaining four lucites is open to speculation - NASA upper management, the President and Vice-President, are all possibilities.

The Apollo 1 Fliteline medallions

In a direct continuation of the Gemini program tradition, the Apollo 1 crew had a number of Fliteline medallions minted for their mission. These medallions were og brass or base metal, with some examples plated in gold, and were significantly larger than previous Fliteline medallions, measuring 31mm across compared with around 25mm for most of the Gemini medallions.

Of course these medallions did not get to fly on Apollo 1 so the reverse of the medallions have no mission dates engraved. However, it is worth noting that James McDivitt actually carried some of the Apollo 1 Fliteline medallions on the Apollo 9 mission in honor of the Apollo 1 crew - 6 silver medallions were apparently carried, one for each of the children of the Apollo 1 astronauts, and 2 gold medallions, one for each of the widows. These medallions had the dates of the Apollo 9 mission engraved on the reverse.

Below are examples of Fliteline medallions from each mission, showing both the silver and gold-plated versions of each medal.

	Gemini 3 Fliteline medallion : sterling silver			Gemini 3 Fliteline medallion : gold-plated sterling silver
			No gold-plated Gemini 4 Fliteline medallion examples found
	Gemini 4 Fliteline medallion : sterling silver
	Gemini 5 Fliteline medallion : sterling silver		Gemini 5 Fliteline medallion : gold-plated sterling silver
	Gemini 6 Fliteline medallion : brass / base metal		Gemini 6 Fliteline medallion : gold-plated brass / base metal
	Gemini 7 Fliteline medallion : brass / base metal		Gemini 7 Fliteline medallion : gold-plated brass / base metal
	Gemini 8 Fliteline medallion : brass / base metal		Gemini 8 Fliteline medallion : gold-plated brass / base metal
	Gemini 9 Fliteline medallion : sterling silver		Gemini 9 Fliteline medallion : gold-plated sterling silver
	Gemini 10 Fliteline medallion : brass / base metal		Gemini 10 Fliteline medallion : gold-plated brass / base metal
	Gemini 11 Fliteline medallion : sterling silver		Gemini 11 Fliteline medallion : gold-plated sterling silver
	Gemini 12 Fliteline medallion : brass / base metal		Gemini 12 Fliteline medallion : gold-plated brass / base metal
	Apollo 1 Fliteline medallion : brass / base metal		Apollo 1 Fliteline medallion : gold-plated brass / base metal