The Apollo 11 coins were the brainchild of Mike Olson, a member of the federal Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee (CCAC) from Iowa, who thought of it in February 2014, several months before his term on the committee ended. He had recently rewatched the film Apollo 13, and felt there should be a coin issue in honor of the fiftieth anniversary of Apollo 11 landing on the Moon. The CCAC was preparing its annual report and he persuaded his colleagues to include a recommendation for Apollo 11 coinage. Olson had left the committee by the time the CCAC prepared its annual report, but the chair, Gary Marks, took up the cause and got it included.
