Coin issued to commemorate the first man in space, Soviet hero Yuri Gagarin. It was the first human space flight in the history of mankind. However, it is interesting how this flight should be classified from the formal point of view, because Gagarin did not reach the Earth in his spaceship, but catapulted from it, anyway according to plan, and reached the surface of the Earth on a parachute. This fact was initially concealed by the USSR at least until the FAI confirmed the flight altitude record, flight time record and the record for the amount of mass lifted into orbit. Regardless of the method of landing, however, the FAI recognized Gagarin's flight.

The reverse of the coin depicts a cosmonaut on the background of a colourful flag of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.