In this collector's guide, retired chief engraver of the Philadelphia Mint and designer of the reverse side of the American silver eagle bullion coin, John M. Mercanti, details the history and development of the American silver eagles program as well as other U.S. bullion coins and medals.

It's a coin collector's dream folder, with a space for every state's newly designed quarters--arranged according to the year each was minted--along with dozens of fascinating facts. When Congress passed the "50 States Commemorative Coin Program Act" in 1997, which led to the creation of quarters honoring every state in the union, its members especially hoped that young people and their families would collect these memorable tokens. This handy folder will help youngsters realize that goal and hold onto these special keepsakes, which are being released over ten years in the order in which the states ratified the Constitution. In addition to the slots for the quarters, kids will find a description of the Commemorative Coin Program; a history of the United States Quarter Dollar; a list of state capitals, nicknames, mottoes, and more; details on how the 50 designs were chosen; and an account of how coins are manufactured by the U.S. Mint and distributed by the Federal Reserve Bank.

Store and display all of the National Parks quarters in this handy collector's folder Beginning in 2010, the United States Mint will issue newly designed quarters featuring a national park or other site approximately every ten weeks--and this compact folder is the perfect place for collectors to store each new coin. Complete with historical information and details of the Congressional Act that initiated this special program, the folder will keep this commemorative series organized, accessible, and easy to show off. The noteworthy sites will come from all 50 states, as well as Washington, D.C., and five U.S. territories: Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Northern Mariana Islands.

A rich visual history of real and fictional space stations, illustrating pop culture's influence on the development of actual space stations and vice versa Space stations represent both the summit of space technology and, possibly, the future of humanity beyond Earth. Space Stations: The Art, Science, and Reality of Working in Space takes the reader deep into the heart of past, present, and future space stations, both real ones and those dreamed up in popular culture. This lavishly illustrated book explains the development of space stations from the earliest fictional visions through historical and current programs--including Skylab, Mir, and the International Space Station--and on to the dawning possibilities of large-scale space colonization. Engrossing narrative and striking images explore not only the spacecraft themselves but also how humans experience life aboard them, addressing everything from the development of efficient meal preparation methods to experiments in space-based botany. The book examines cutting-edge developments in government and commercial space stations, including NASA's Deep Space Habitats, the Russian Orbital Technologies Commercial Space Station, and China's Tiangong program. Throughout, Space Stations also charts the fascinating depiction of space stations in popular culture, whether in the form of children's toys, comic-book spacecraft, settings in science-fiction novels, or the backdrop to TV series and Hollywood movies. Space Stations is a beautiful and captivating history of the idea and the reality of the space station from the nineteenth century to the present day.