THE Royal Australian Mint is celebrating 50 years since the Apollo 11 moon landing with the world’s first dome-shaped coloured nickel plated coin.

In launching new limited edition domed coins, the Mint has been joined by those who worked on the historic transmission of Apollo 11 in Australia.

Three new coins were released, including the world’s first dome-shaped coloured nickel plated coin, a domed gold coin and a coloured silver domed coin as part of a collaborative set with the US Mint. The coins were launched by the Mint’s CEO, Ross MacDiarmid with the support of the operations scientist at CSIRO’s Parkes radio telescope, John Sarkissian, former Parkes radio telescope site electrician and driver, Ben Lam, former Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station Deputy Station Director, Mike Dinn and coin designer, Adam Ball.

The obverse of the new coins depicts the CSIRO Parkes radio telescope pointed towards the moon, from which it is receiving television signals of the Apollo 11 lunar landing. The text in the background is an excerpt from the transcript of commander Neil Armstrong’s journal of the lunar landing.

“Australia and CSIRO are world-leaders in radio astronomy and antenna design. This is why NASA came to Australia and the CSIRO Parkes telescope, for our support and geographic location. It’s also the reason why we continue to play a role in NASA space missions,” Mr Sarkissian said.

The coins are all Australian legal tender and can be purchased at ramint.gov.au or 1300 652020.