Coin, Florin, Ireland, Lindbergh

Coin collected by Charles and Anne Lindbergh during their flights.

Originally there were one hundred and eighty-four (184) but thirteen (13) were used in two (2) seperate displays, see catalog number A20030078001 and A20030079033. Twenty five (25) were selected for Pioneers of Flight, gallery 208. See also A20030078002-A20030078027

Charles A. Lindbergh and his wife, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, collected coins from several countries during their 1931 flight to the Orient and 1933 flights across the North and South Atlantic. They acquired this Irish coin, which is dated 1930, during their trans-Atlantic trip.

Although the Lindberghs collected souvenirs along the way, their two trans-global trips were more than just vacations. They were also significant survey flights which provided information for the planning of commercial air routes. Their 1931 trip to the Orient proved the viability of traveling from the West to the Far East via the great circle route to the North. Their 1933 trip across the North and South Atlantic revealed many of the difficulties of trans-Atlantic air travel.

Upon returning from their 1933 trip, the Lindberghs donated their aircraft, a Lockheed Sirius given the name Tingmissartoq-"One who flies like a big bird"-by a Greenland Eskimo boy, as well as many of their personal items, including their coin collection, to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. The aircraft and accompanying items were displayed in the Hall of Ocean Life until 1955, when they were sent to the United States Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio. After deciding that Lindbergh artifacts did not really represent the Air Force, the Air Force Museum transferred the collection to the Smithsonian Institution's Air Museum in 1959.