One of the first Olympic gold medals ever awarded sold for $545,371.25 at RR Auctions on Thursday night, the third-most expensive Olympic medal of all time.
The only two medals to sell for more are one of Jesse Owens’ medals from the 1936 Berlin Olympics, which sold for $1.47 million in 2013 (the most expensive olympic medal sale in history), and Wladimir Klitschko’s 1996 Atlanta gold medal, which he sold for $1 million in 2012 to raise money for a Ukrainian charity carrying his family name.
"Any winner's medal from the 1904 Olympics is excessively rare, ranking amongst the most elusive of all Olympic prizes,” RR Auctions wrote in its lot description. “This example, in particular, is exceptionally well-preserved.”
Not only was 1904 the first year to offer gold, silver and bronze medals to the top three finishers, but just 280 total medals were given out that year. Of those, only 97 were gold. It’s the second-fewest medals awarded since the introduction of the gold, silver and bronze tradition, behind only 1912, which had 240.
The 2024 Olympic Games in Paris awarded 1,044 medals, 329 of them gold.
The 1904 110-meter hurdle gold medal was awarded to American Frederick William Schule and exceeded its $150,000 estimate by nearly three times.
One of the only two in public auction archives is a 1904 gold medal given to golfer Robert Hunter, which sold for more than $270,000 in 1916 (missing the ribbon and original case) and another awarded to an American gymnast with one leg for rope climbing (missing the original case), which sold more just more than $80,000 in July 2024.
The Dièges & Clust-designed medal is inscribed “Olympiad, 1904” and depicts an athlete holding a wreath in front of an Ancient Greek backdrop and features the Greek goddess of victory, Nike and Zeus on its opposite side. The medal retains its original ribbon and clasp, as well as its original leather presentation case.
Schule, a two-time Big Ten champion in the long jump, the first University of Wisconsin athlete to achieve a championship in track and field.
While receiving his master’s in chemistry from the University of Michigan from 1903 to 1904, he was a member of the Wolverine’s 11-0-1 football team, which outscored opponents 565-6 under College Football Hall of Fame coach Fielding H. Yost. In 1904, he set the world record in the 75-yard hurdles prior to competing for the U.S. in the St. Louis Olympics.
The market for Olympic memorabilia has taken off in recent years, according to the auction house’s executive vice president, Bobby Eaton, who told cllct in June the infusion of younger collectors has fueled prices.
Medals from the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” hockey team have sold for more than $300,000 in recent years. One of the rarest torches in Olympic history, one of 25 produced for the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley and once belonging to Walt Disney, sold for a record $720,000 in 2022.
Will Stern is a reporter and editor for cllct.