God Speed Artemis. 

God Speed Jeremy Hansen

There are no words to convey how honoured we are to have been asked to mint these fine silver coins dedicated to the Artemis II lunar mission.

We were asked to provide a unique “Gift of Honour” coin for the 2026 Annual RCAF Mess Dinner. We chose to commemorate the recent Artemis II lunar mission. This coin is not nor will ever be for sale to the general public as it does not use any official protected symbols, but is an artistic fusion of a number of them. “Given the sheer complexity of the Artemis II mission, I wanted to do everything I could to reference a multitude of various agencies into a single image as an artistic expression representing so many different groups involved in contributing to the immense success of Artemis II.”

2 sets of dies, 9 remakes of the dies, 6 weeks, a blown UV printer we waited a year to repair, no idea how many times batches were struck, failed because of a tiny, tiny detail….what you see here is a cross section of the 6 weeks of effort of 80-100 hour work weeks, dedicated to finishing these gifts of honour for the RCAF and Jeremy Hansen.  We apologise for the lack of finished photo-staged images. We  never  had  enough  time to photo-document that.  The select gold plating was a challenge and was responsible for much of the problems leading to the decision to keep remaking the coins as the mask materials we tried either did not properly create a sealed barrier or it scuffed the surface of the silver and it was only when we threw a hail Mary pass of a last ditch idea where it worked. The first few batches had an extrusion around the circumference which was caused by the steel surface flaking which was a result of improper heat treatment. It was late into the project when the decision was made that remake the die set, redo the chrome plating and polishing and truly dial in our process and at the end of the process, we were finally happy with the results. In addition to these coins, we were asked to provide one additional coin of the Command Maple for a retired Air Vice Marshall with the Royal Air Force which we provided. In the end, we were absolutely thrilled with the exceptional results. It is our hope that the recipients, especially the Commanding General of the RCAF Lieutenant-General Jamie Speiser-Blanchet,  Col Jeremy Hansen and all the recipients are as happy with the results.

The Crest on the Obverse was a design by Joseph Green and it is an artistic fusion of the Astronaut Wings presented to Canadians, with the integration of the logo of the Canadian Space Agency and the Command Ensign. Inside the ring are a series of maple leaves forming the laurels which reference the laurels found on the wings, but we wanted to use a series of Maple Leaves to reference that element. On the Reverse side with the Artemis II mission crest show the 102 year of the RCAF and the reference to the coins being presented in Calgary at the Annual Senior Officers Mess Dinner. We ensured almost all the detailed line work of the Orion Rocket, including the Orion Name was placed on the rocket, along with the crest of the Canadian Space Agency and NASA, and the trajectory of the lunar mission parameters and the lunar surface texture and the names of the four crew members. We made sure to also use the correct font for the referencing to the RCAF on the Reverse Side. We sincerely hope you all like it.

This effort was made on behalf of all Canadians to express our collective pride in this exceptional performance by a Canadian Fighter Pilot and Astronaut.

Below are pictures of all the failures encountered, ranging from bad select gold plating to die surface plating failures to surface blemishes and more. Its important to show ones process work to others in order for people to truly appreciate just how much time and effort is involved in something like this.