The tradition of awarding Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals to the top finishers in every event at the Olympics began at St. Louis 1904 Olympic Games. It is the responsibility of the host city's organizing committee to design the Olympic medals and varies with each edition of the Games.
The Tokyo 2020 Olympics concluded yesterday. America has won the most medals this year. The US topped the medal tally with 39 gold, 41 silver and 33 bronze medals. At the same time, China is second and Japan is at number three. India is ranked 48th this year with one gold, two silver and four bronze medals. This year the medals were designed by Junichi Kawanishi.
We just want to officially confirm that the #Tokyo2020 medals are not edible!
— #Tokyo2020 (@Tokyo2020) July 25, 2021
Our 🥇🥈🥉 medals are made from material recycled from electronic devices donated by the Japanese public.
So, you don't have to bite them... but we know you still will 😛 #UnitedByEmotion
The medal won by any Olympian is priceless, but can an Olympic medal be had for the right price? The answer is Yes. Read the article below to find out how.
It is rightly said that one doesn't have to be an Olympian to collect Olympic medals as these can be sought from pawn shops and auction blocks where collectors are scooping them up like rare coins, comic books or any other sports artefacts.
Of late, a Silver medal in shooting from the 1900 Olympics in Paris was sold for a mere $1,283. The Bronze medal from the 1956 Winter Games in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy was fetched $3,750.
On the eve of this year's Olympics, the first-place Silver medal from the 1896 Olympics in Athens was sold for a whopping $180,111. It is worth mentioning that there were no Gold medals at that time.
The Boston-based auction house, RR Auction, handled all three sales. According to Bobby Livingston, an executive vice president of RR Auction, "It’s a niche collectable. The ones that have come to market in recent years, there isn’t a glut of them."
Over the years, former Olympians have restored to selling their medals citing financial hardships or for raising money for charity. Bill Russell who led the U.S. Basketball team will put his Gold Medal from the 1956 Olympics on the auction this fall. He is also planning to sell some of his N.B.A. championship rings, a warm-up jacket and other memorabilia. The amount raised will go to MENTOR, a charity that he co-founded to promote youth mentorship opportunities.
On 22 July 2021, a Gold medal sold for $83,188 was won by an unidentified member of the 1984 U.S. basketball team. Although the medal commanded five figures, it was a mere fraction of the nearly $1.5 million that a collector paid in 2019 for one of the four gold medals that were won by Jesse Owens at the 1936 Summer Games in Berlin which was watched by Hitler.
According to the auction experts, the names and the circumstances associated with athletic feats matter. However, the names of the Olympians are not engraved on medals. Also, the origin and ownership history of provenance plays an important role in their price, along with its condition.
| Do you know? 1- Gold, Silver and Bronze medals are 85 millimetres in diameter and range in thickness from 7.7 mm to 12.1 mm. 2- The gold medal is made from gold-plated pure silver, with around 6 grams of gold out of a total weight of 556 grams. |
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