This is *real* money. From space.
 
The US Mint has just released a new $1 coin commemorating NASA's longest-serving spacecraft: The Space Shuttle. We flew them to the edge of space on May 25, 2025. The coins hitched a ride onboard a cosmic ray research balloon, floating 119,343 feet above the Sierra Nevada mountains of central California.
 
The coin's design presents an image of a NASA space shuttle lifting off from Launch Complex 39 at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center. Smoke from the solid rocket boosters fills the lower edges of the design with stars in the background.
 
You can have a single $1 coin for $49.95. It weighs 8 grams of 6% zinc, 4% manganese, 2% nickel, and 88% copper. You'll also receive a greeting card showing the coin in flight and telling the story of its journey to the stratosphere and back again.