Despite their nominal status as legal tender coins, these commemoratives did not circulate within the country—which used the American dollar as its currency—and after it became clear that redemption of these pieces was a less-than-automatic process, they were removed from the Krause standard catalogs and placed in Unusual World Coins.
(They were, however, restored to the standard catalogs after the official redemption policies were regularized—one coin per day and also, or so I have read, a redemption fee.)
This 1988 5-dollar piece celebrates the American space shuttle Discovery, and her 1988 flight, which marked the first space shuttle flight since the Challenger and her seven-member crew were lost in a massive explosion shortly after the shuttle’s launch in 1986.
The Discovery commem also comes in a mintmarked (M) version, and together the two types number well over a million pieces. At five dollars face apiece, that’s a not inconsiderable government obligation.
And that redemption fee for that one redeemable coin per day? I’ve read that it‘s five dollars. So take your Marshall Islands’ 10- and 50-dollar coins if you visit, but these 5-dollar pieces, apparently, are just a waste of luggage space.
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