In 1682 British astronomer Edmund Halley predicted a brilliant comet would appear in the night skies. Until this time, people thought that the appearance of a comet was random and that its appearance foretold great calamity.
In 1910, the comet head was as bright as the sun and approached with 55 million miles of the earth. It was predicted to appear again in February, 1986. As expected the comet did appear, but it was not nearly as bright as the previous time. In anticipation of the reappearance of Halley's comet, this set of four pure one ounce silver medallions was made.
The front of each medallion has the portrait of Edmund Halley and the comet namesake.
The Reverse of the four pure (.999) silver medallions are shown below
The famous Bayeux Tapestry of 1066 shows the appearance of this comet.
Mark Twain according to legend was born on the day the comet appeared and died on the day it next appeared. He said "I came with the comet and I shall go with it"
Since we had the capability of space travel in 1986, the space shuttle did scientific experiments on the tail of the comet and the space craft, Giotto, flew towards the head of the comet and approached it within a distance of only 600 miles (that is the equivalent of shooting a rifle in Los Angeles and hitting a small moving target in New York)
note: these medals are round, and are distorted only in the picture.
This unusual proof set of silver is available for sale or trade and comes with it's own fitted velvet case.