Nearly 270 rocks were given as gifts to 130 countries by the Nixon administration from both the Apollo 11 flight in 1969 and Apollo 17 flight in 1972.
Today, the whereabouts of these souvenirs are unknown. According to the Associated Press,
Of 135 rocks from the Apollo 17 mission given away to nations or their leaders, only about 25 have been located by CollectSpace.com, a Web site for space history buffs that has long attempted to compile a list.
That should not be taken to mean the others are lost - just that the records kept at the time are far from complete.
The AP reviewed declassified correspondence between the State Department and U.S. embassies in 1973 and was able to locate ten additional Apollo 17 rocks - in Switzerland, Belgium, Italy, Barbados, France, Poland, Norway, Costa Rica, Egypt and Nepal.”
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