This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 12/11/2022
Presented here is a third place winner's bronze medal from the 1936 Berlin Summer Olympics, which will be forever remembered as the Games where Jesse Owens stole Hitler's thunder on the notorious dictator's home turf. A total of 320 bronze medals were struck (same number of golds and silvers) by minter B.H. Mayer, each made of pure bronze with a diameter of 55 mm, a diameter of 3-4 mm and a typical weight of 72 grams. Designed by Giuseppe Cassioli, the obverse features Nike, Goddess of Victory, seated above a stadium holding the winner's crown and palm branch with the German legend "XI. OLYMPIADE BERLIN 1936" in raised lettering. The reverse shows a winner carried by jubilant athletes. The medal remains in outstanding condition with its somewhat darker tone in the images overshadowing remarkably defined relief and high point details. There is no tarnishing and the surface is exceptionally smooth and clean. Although the recipient and event are unknown (no 1936 winner's medals provided this info), the medal survives as an important historical artifact from an extremely tense Olympics during the rise of the Third Reich and Nazi Germany.