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Gemini 5 was the first mission to have an embroidered patch. Famously, the motto "8 days or bust" embroidered on the side of the wagon in the design was deemed unacceptable by NASA and had to be covered over on the crew's patches with plain cloth. It seems that the two patches worn by Cooper and Conrad were more-or-less hand produced, with subtle differences in the two designs being visible e.g. the running board to the right of the barrel on the side of the wagon seems to be a little lower on Conrad's patch than Cooper's. The closeup images on the right show the two patches in some detail. |
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On the right is Cooper's Gemini 5 embroidered patch, as photographed after the flight for an official image of the flown patch (S65-59530). Note that the white background material on his patch seems to be very saggy. This was already visible on the post-flight pictures below the "5" of Gemini 5 and at the bottom of the patch where the inner black line is almost obscured by the sagging material.
Since these two patches were apparently hand-made they are not really something the patch collector can aim for.
From the relative size of Cooper's patch as shown in a NASA picture of the Gemini crew patches together I would estimate it to be just over 4" (101mm) in diameter.
The patch design shown on the right differs quite noticeably from the design used by the crew but is apparently part of a batch that was flown on the mission by the crew to hand out as souvenirs after the flight.
The fact that this design was produced at the time of the flight and carried on the flight by the crew makes it a valid stand-in for a crew patch. A flown example of this patch recently sold for over $2500 [1].
Unfortunately this patch was probably produced in extremely small numbers so even an unflown example (if they exist) would be very hard to find.
The patch is 4" (103mm) in diameter.
