Auction Name: 2026 February 28 - March 1 Winter Platinum Night Sports Catalog Auction

Lot Number: 80149

Shortcut to Lot: HA.com/50083*80149

1896 Athens Summer Olympics First Place Silver Medal. The first edition of the Modern Games was properly headquartered in the city where the Olympics were born millennia earlier, the ancient city of Athens, Greece. Only with the luxury of hindsight are we able to understand just how important this fragile early edition was, the first spark of an Olympic flame that burns more brightly with every subsequent event. Fewer than 250 athletes participated in the 1896 Athens Games, and here we encounter the key relic of that inaugural modern Olympics. It's a true "Holy Grail" of the challenging collecting subgenre, and one of the most significant awards of any format to be offered by Heritage Sports.

Gold hasn't always been the top prize--in the very first Games, silver went to the victorious athletes, with copper for runners-up (no third-place medals were issued). This one is particularly well-preserved, featuring a Jules-Clement Champlain design with a laurel-wreathed head of Zeus and winged Victory on obverse and a view of Acropolis and Parthenon between Olympic legend on verso. "Argent" edge stamping. Diameter 50 mm., weight 66 g. An important and nearly priceless relic of international sport.

We should note that an identical medal with considerably more handling wear than the subject specimen sold in a July 2021 auction for over $180,000.

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