Armstrong check sells for $27,350

AP file photo, July 20, 1969

ON THE MOON: Astronaut Neil A. Armstrong, Apollo 11 commander, is seen inside the Lunar Module.

AMHERST, N.H. (AP) — A check signed by Neil Armstrong hours before he took off for the moon has been sold for $27,350, 40 years to the day after it was written.

An engineer in California bought it in an online auction run by RR Auction of Amherst, N.H.

The $10.50 check was for money Armstrong had borrowed from Harold Collins, a NASA manager. According to the auction house, Armstrong wrote it in case anything happened to him on the moon mission but told Collins not to cash it because he would return.

The check was sold Thursday morning, ending the 17-day auction.

Anthony Pizzitola of the Universal Autograph Collectors Club says the price is a record for a single Armstrong autograph.

Jack Staub, from Newport Beach, Calif., bought the check.