Obverse. Saint Petersburg Mint (SPMD). Photo © RARITETUS.ru
  • 10 Rubles 2001, Y# 676, Russia, Federation, First Human Spaceflight, 40th Anniversary, Saint Petersburg Mint (SPMD)
  • 10 Rubles 2001, Y# 676, Russia, Federation, First Human Spaceflight, 40th Anniversary
  • 10 Rubles 2001, Y# 676, Russia, Federation, First Human Spaceflight, 40th Anniversary, Moscow Mint (MMD)
Description

On April 12, 1961, the USSR opened the era of manned spaceflight, with the flight of the first cosmonaut (the Russian name for space travellers), Yuri Gagarin. Gagarin's flight, part of the Soviet Vostok space exploration program, took 108 minutes and consisted of a single orbit of the Earth.

Gagarin thus became both the first human to travel into space and the first to orbit the Earth. His call sign was Kedr (Siberian pine or Cedar).

The radio communication between the launch control room and Gagarin included the following dialogue at the moment of rocket launch:

Korolev: "Preliminary stage..... intermediate..... main..... lift off! We wish you a good flight. Everything is all right."
Gagarin: "Poyekhali!" (Let's go!).

Gagarin's informal poyekhali! became a historical phrase in the Eastern Bloc, used to refer to the beginning of the Space Age in human history.

Artist: A. V. Baklanov
Sculptor: A. S. Kunats
Date of issue: 11.04.2001

Obverse

Depicts the inscriptions along the circumference BANK OF RUSSIA at the top and date at the bottom. There are images of branches of the bay tree and oak tree on the left and on the right of the outer ring, respectively, their elements extending onto the disc. The number ‘10’ and the inscription RUBLES below denoting the face value of the coin are in the centre of the disc. The digit ‘0’ features a security element inside in the form of the figure ‘10’ and the inscription RUB visible at various viewing angles to the coin surface. The Moscow Mint or Saint Petersburg Mint trademark is at the bottom of the disc.

БАНК РОССИИ
10
РУБЛЕЙ
СПМД
2001

Reverse

Depicts a picture of Yuri Gagarin wearing a space suit, under it the facsimile signature GAGARIN, in the upper part of the ring the inscription along the rim: APRIL 12, 1961.

Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin (1934– 1968) was a Russian Soviet pilot and cosmonaut. He was the first human to journey into outer space, when his Vostok spacecraft completed an orbit of the Earth on 12 April 1961.

Gagarin became an international celebrity and was awarded many medals and titles, including Hero of the Soviet Union, the nation's highest honour. Vostok 1 marked his only spaceflight, but he served as backup crew to the Soyuz 1 mission (which ended in a fatal crash). Gagarin later became deputy training director of the Cosmonaut Training Centre outside Moscow, which was later named after him. Gagarin died in 1968 when the MiG-15 training jet he was piloting crashed.

12 АПРЕЛЯ 1961 ГОДА
ГАГАРИН

Edge

300 corrugations and the inscription TEN RUBLES recurring twice and divided by asterisks

ДЕСЯТЬ РУБЛЕЙ ⋆ ДЕСЯТЬ РУБЛЕЙ ⋆

10 Rubles

Y# 676 Schön# 674 CBR# 5514-0005
Characteristics
Type Commemorative Issue (Circulating)
Material Bi-Metallic
Ring Brass
Center Cupronickel
Weight 8.4 g
Diameter 27 mm
Thickness 2.1 mm
Shape round
Alignment Medal
Mints
Moscow Mint (MMD)
Saint Petersburg Mint (SPMD)

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