A coin series for our times. Conspiracy theories get numismatic form with the second of Powercoins ‘Great Conspiracies’

There is little that sums up modern society as much as a conspiracy theorist. A dive into the fantastical and mysterious in a world filled with so much pressure and mundanity, is a relief to many, but often spills out to ridicule. It’s hard to criticise the ridicule when you see such idiotic notions as the Flat Earth Theory. You literally can’t argue with a believer of this, given they’ve already chosen to ignore the copious amounts of easily verifiable evidence to the contrary. Less obvious is covered by the second of Powercoins ‘Great Conspiracies’ 2 oz silver coin series.

Area 51 has long been a legend of, not just the conspiracy theorists, but popular culture in general. Movies, books, TV show and countless other expressive forms, have long had a fascination with the Nevada-based facility. Said to be the home of captured alien technology, and even the fabled ‘Grey’ aliens, the reality is a little more down to earth, but no less interesting. A US military test facility going back to the Lockheed U2 days of the 1950’s, the area was used to evaluate new and advanced aircraft, so the spotting of strange lights in the sky is quite understandable. Doesn’t make it aliens, however.

The coin takes the two most iconic elements for its design – the flying saucer and the big-eyed alien. It’s actually a pretty cool looking piece, with the custom bordered and green coloured obverse enhancing the alien feel. An expansive custom capsule highlights the coin perfectly, and it all comes in a themed tin with a Certificate of Authenticity.

We missed covering the first issue last year, and it does cover that most ludicrous of ideas, the Flat Earth Theory. This one has a flat map of the planet on one side, with the same obverse as the 2020 coin, but in blue. The coin looks great, the theory less so… This one is similarly packaged and has an identical mintage of 500 pieces. Area 51 is available to order now, with shipping in April 2021. The Flat Earth is available now.

AREA 51

Area 51 is the common name of a highly classified United States Air Force (USAF) facility located within the Nevada Test and Training Range. A remote detachment administered by Edwards Air Force Base, the facility is officially called Homey Airport (KXTA) or Groom Lake, named after the salt flat situated next to its airfield. Details of the facility’s operations are not publicly known, but the USAF says that it is an open training range, and it most likely supports the development and testing of experimental aircraft and weapons systems. The USAF acquired the site in 1955, primarily for flight testing the Lockheed U-2 aircraft.

The intense secrecy surrounding the base has made it the frequent subject of conspiracy theories and a central component of unidentified flying object (UFO) folklore. The base has never been declared a secret base, but all research and occurrences in Area 51 are Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI). The CIA publicly acknowledged the existence of the base for the first time on June 25, 2013, following a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed in 2005, and they declassified documents detailing the history and purpose of Area 51.

Area 51 is located in the southern portion of Nevada in the western United States, 83 miles (134 km) north-northwest of Las Vegas. The surrounding area is a popular tourist destination, including the small town of Rachel on the “Extraterrestrial Highway”.

FLAT EARTH THEORY

The flat Earth model is an archaic conception of Earth’s shape as a plane or disk. Many ancient cultures subscribed to a flat Earth cosmography, including Greece until the classical period, the Bronze Age and Iron Age civilizations of the Near East until the Hellenistic period, India until the Gupta period (early centuries AD), and China until the 17th century.

The idea of a spherical Earth appeared in ancient Greek philosophy with Pythagoras (6th century BC), although most pre-Socratics (6th–5th century BC) retained the flat Earth model. In the early 4th century BC Plato wrote about a spherical Earth, and by about 330 BC his former student Aristotle provided evidence for the spherical shape of the Earth on empirical grounds. Knowledge of the spherical Earth gradually began to spread beyond the Hellenistic world from then on.

Despite the scientific fact of Earth’s sphericity, pseudoscientific flat Earth conspiracy theories are espoused by modern flat Earth societies and, increasingly, by unaffiliated individuals using social media. Members of the Flat Earth Society and other flat-Earthers claim that NASA and other government agencies conspire to delude the public into believing the Earth is spherical. According to the most widely spread version of current flat-Earth theory, NASA is guarding the Antarctic ice wall that surrounds Earth. Flat-Earthers argue that NASA photoshops its satellite images, based on observations that the color of the oceans changes from image to image and that continents seem to be in different places. The publicly perpetuated image is kept up through a large-scale practice of “compartmentalization”, according to which only a select number of individuals have knowledge about the truth. (WIKIPEDIA)