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Your Personal Aviation Museum: Collectibles as Historical Evidence
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Your enthusiasm for aviation can find expression in collectibles. The tangibles that go along with flying can become your personal aviation museum. Postcards, envelopes, coins, and banknotes are artifacts that authenticate the milestones of aviation history.
Air Mail is self-documenting. The post office cancellation on an air mail envelope, a commemorative cover, or a post card is proof that a flight took place. In addition, you might have the writer's date or a copyright on an airline postcard or pre-printed envelope. In the 1920s and 1930s, "first flight covers" celebrated the initial links between towns such as Buffalo, Cleveland, Fort Worth, Denver, Spokane and Seattle. You can find cancelled covers for air races and conventions.
The Hindenburg and other airships carried mail. Cancellations authenticate the time and place. You might want to own a letter carried by Lindbergh or Robert L. Scott. On the heels of Lindbergh's flight, the U.S. Post Office issued a commemorative air mail stamp with the Spirit of St. Louis.
In The Right Stuff, the line "No bucks, no Buck Rogers" is spoken twice. So, it is natural for aviation themes to appear on money. The United States was apparently the first government to put an aircraft on its bank notes. The Federal Reserve $20 bill of 1913 features a ship, a car, a train, and an airplane. In 1929 and 1930, the German republic commemorated the airship "Graf Zeppelin" on two coins, a 3-mark and a 5-mark. Both had high mintages both were struck at several mints and both are available in business strikes and proofs.
In our time, perhaps the most famous and available note is the 50-franc issue of France with Antoine de Saint Exupery, with his "Little Prince" and a biplane. A friend of the Lindberghs, he was the author of several books. American readers know "Wind, Sand and Stars," and "Night Flight." Saint Exupery disappeared while flying for the Free French in 1944. The notes are available in uncirculated grades for about $15. They will be demonetized with the advent of the Euro on January 1, 2002.
Malawi, Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia placed aircraft on their modern banknotes. Airplanes have appeared on notes from several Chinese authorities since World War II. It is usually possible to identify the planes. Singapore's Concorde is obvious. The DC-9 appears on the 2 1/2 Guilder of the Netherlands Antilles. A 747 in Baruda livery is on the Indonesia 50,000 rupiah note. Malawi's 20-kwacha shows a BAC-111/200. Brazil briefly honored Alberto Santos Dumont with a vignette of the inventor and (rather than an airship), his motorized box kite. Lithuania and Peru also honored their national aviation heroes and the planes they flew.
When North Carolina's circulating commemorative quarter comes out, 1.75 billion coins will carry an image of the Wright Brothers first flight at Kill Devil Hill in 1903. Ohio's choice will most likely also have some aviation theme, though that decision is months away. Canada honored Aviation on its November 1999 circulating commemorative 25-cent coin.
Canada issued two series of aviation commemoratives in the 1990s. Both sets offered crown-sized silver coins with smaller inset cameos highlighted with gold foil. The major design was always a famous Canadian plane from the Gipsy Moth and Otter to the Harvard and Lancaster. The cameo image was usually the inventor, but often the prime test pilot, chief engineer, or other person considered most responsible for the plane.
The U.S. Mint still sells authentic bronze copies of the gold medal designed by Laura Gardin Fraser for presentation to Charles Lindbergh. The U.S. Mint also honored Chuck Yeager, the Double Eagle II, Gen. Ian Eaker, and Robert Goddard.
Searching any coin shop's assorted silver bars and rounds will bring a harvest of Cessnas and Pipers as well as fighters and bombers. Local clubs -- coin clubs or pilot clubs -- issue medals to celebrate events and anniversaries of local interest. The opening of a new airport or the centenary of the birth of a local pioneer are typical. These medals are sometimes the best or only documentation for an event of local interest.
You might treasure an autographed picture of a famous test pilot, or a salt and pepper shaker from an airline that has passed into history. One flier has a piece of a downed Goodyear blimp and another has fabric from a National Geographic balloon. Mechanical parts from old Stearmans, Martin and DC-3s can be found in antique stores. One collector found the horizontally mounted compass from a B-17.
Probably the one collectible easiest to find with the deepest meaning for any student is the old "$5 Introductory Flight" token from Piper. Mildred Benson of Toledo, Ohio, created the Nancy Drew stories. Years later, working as a reporter, the Toledo Blade sent her to Wagonwheel Airport to meet someone for an interview. When she was there, she picked up one of the $5 Tokens and eventually earned a private pilot's license. "It was the most expensive five dollars of my life," she said.
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Michael E. Marotta
mercury@well.com
Technical Writer
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