Home1956 Olympic GamesMEMORABILIA: Staggering $436,297 paid for beautifully-preserved 1904 St. Louis Olympic gold at RR Auction!

MEMORABILIA: Staggering $436,297 paid for beautifully-preserved 1904 St. Louis Olympic gold at RR Auction!

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≡ RR AUCTION CONCLUDES ≡

With a week to go, a beautifully-preserved gold medal from the 1904 Olympic Games in St. Louis had reached $168,209 at auction against an expected sales price of $150,000. But that was only the beginning.

The 384-item Olympic memorabilia offer from Boston-based RR Auction finished on Thursday evening, with a sensational final price for the 1904 gold at $436,297!

Wow!

This was a rare piece; RR Auction chief operating officer Bobby Eaton explained, “It is the BEST 1904 medal to ever come to auction.”

St. Louis was the first Olympics to use the now-traditional gold, silver and bronze-medal scheme for the top three placers. This specific medal was presented to winner Fred Schule of the U.S., who led an American sweep. The Olympic Games was part of the much larger, seven-month-long Louisiana Purchase Exposition, better known as the St. Louis World’s Fair.

Minted in New York, the medal is in excellent condition and includes part of its original, four-color ribbon and gold clasp, and is offered in its original, worn, leather case, reading “Medal for Olympic Games, Universal Exposition, St. Louis U.S.A., F. J. V. Skiff, Dir. of Exhibits, Jas. E. Sullivan, Chief.”

This was not the only star item at the auction, as 18 other items sold for $15,000 or more:

● $128,618: 1998 Nagano Winter Olympic gold medal for ski jumping
● $93,137: 1968 Grenoble Winter Olympic torch (one of 33 made)
● $79,865: 1956 Stockholm Olympic equestrian gold medal
● $64,421: 2012 London Olympic gold medal for men’s volleyball
● $53,719: 1904 St. Louis Olympic silver medal for football

● $40,000: 1998 Nagano Winter Olympic silver medal for ski jumping
● $37,268: 1994 Lillehammer Winter Olympic torch
● $34,343: 1894 Paris Olympic Congress silver commemorative medal
● $30,597: 2024 Paris Olympic torch
● $30,000: 1994 Albertville Winter Olympic torch (one of 133 made)

● $27,815: 2024 Paris Olympic bronze medal for women’s wrestling
● $22,538: 1964 Tokyo Olympic gold medal for fencing
● $18,784: 1932 Los Angeles Olympic gold medal with box
● $18,782: 1908 London Olympic gold medal for field hockey
● $18,782: 1988 Calgary Olympic Winter torch and flame lamp

● $17,243: 1964 Tokyo Olympic torch
● $15,941: 1964 Innsbruck Olympic Winter gold medal for speedskating
● $15,028: 1998 Nagano Winter Olympic bronze medal for ski jumping

All three of the rare Nagano ski jumping medals – gold, silver and bronze – sold, for a combined total of $183,646!

A good specimen of the gaudy Berlin 1936 “Chain of Office” given to International Olympic Committee members, which has shown up in several auctions over the past year, sold for $12,419, and the 1904 St. Louis Olympic participation medal – perhaps the rarest of all participation medals – sold for $11,270.

A group of three Tokyo 1964 medals – one gold, one silver and one bronze, from different events – sold for $9,075 and the four-torch collection from the late Phil Coles, an International Olympic Committee member from Australia, from Rio 2016 and Winter Games from 2002-2018-2022 went for $8,639.

A collector of highly-prized IOC Session badges snapped up the Coles collection of 30 badges from 1984 to 2021 for $5,453. Among the lesser-priced items, a glorious blue-and-white banner from the Lake Placid Olympic Center – where the “Miracle on Ice” game took place, went for $495.

The auction showed that 289 items sold, down to $200, a spectacular showing, but especially for the 1904 St. Louis gold, in one of the least-regarded Olympic Games of the modern era.

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