Kim - Suffice it say the marketing is - well - tacky. The coins appear to be legal tender - thus appropriately should be called a "coin". At least they are made out of real gold and silver metal.
From a NASA Press release:
"Inspired by the 'NASA and JPL 50th Anniversary Commemorative Coin Act' which authorizes the US Mint to produce a $50 gold coin with an image of the Sun and nine $1 silver coins each representing one of the nine planets in our solar system, Discovery Collectibles worked with NASA to create a coin line that complements the anniversary and celebrates one of the agency's greatest accomplishments in the Hubble Telescope." http://prweb.com/releases/2007/12/prweb575301.htm Sorry, I could'nt find the as passed version of the bill. I believe it was 110th Cong. HR 2750 passed in the summer of 2007, but again, couldn't find a record of full passage: http://www.thomas.gov/cgi-bin/query/F?c110:3:./temp/~c110iET51m:e183: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:h.r.2750: In various versions of the bill, there is a $50 to $75 surcharge depending on whether the coin is made from silver or gold. Under various bill versions, the first $4 million of the surcharge is split to the NASA Family Assistance Act - a fund for NASA employees injured in the performance of official duites - and the balance goes to a science education fund and the National Air and Space Museum. Since I could not find the as passed version, I'm not sure where the surcharge is going. As noted in the text of 110th Cong., HR 2750, all such commenerative coins issued by the U.S. Mint are legal tender under 31 USC 5103. See the US Code search page at: http://uscode.house.gov/search/criteria.shtml The Congressional Budget Office analysis of an earlier bill version indicated that the bill would have a minimum or no impact on the federal budget since by the act, the surcharge must exceed the cost of production and proceeds of the surcharge will go the NASA Family Assistance Fund, which potentially offset NASA's preexisting duty to compensate NASA personnel injured in the performance of their duties. In that sense, if you want to waste your money on it, that's a personal choice. It's not really a federal tax subsidized transaction. Personally, the coin designs do not appeal to me. But I'm not into coin collecting and do not consider my own pecularity of getting get turned on by big mirrors to be odd. Each to their own. -:) - Kurt ____________________________________________________________________________________ Looking for last minute shopping deals? Find them fast with Yahoo! Search. http://tools.search.yahoo.com/newsearch/category.php?category=shopping