Why the Gold Kentucky Derby Trophy Could Be the Most Valuable Trophy Ever Made
/If you thought the trophy you got when you won the 100-yard dash in eighth grade was pretty cool, you probably haven’t heard about the trophy that the owner of American Pharoah won when his horse won the Kentucky Derby on May 2nd.
Whoa! What a Trophy!
Image Credit: ©2015 Churchill Downs Incorporated. All Rights Reserved.
Here’s some info that we found on the Kentucky Derby’s website, which reports that the trophy . . .
- Is 22 inches tall, weights about 65 ounces (not counting its jade base), and is made of 14-karat gold.
- Is topped by a 14-karat gold horse and rider. It also features horseshoe-shaped wreath handles for easier carrying.
- Was made by New England Sterling in North Attleboro, MA, which has been making the Derby trophies since 1975.
- Took an estimated 2,000 man-hours for artisans to make. New England Sterling also produced three smaller sterling silver replicas of the big trophy that were awarded to the winning horse’s trainer, jockey and breeder. Apparently the horse doesn’t get one.
More Trophy Lore . . .
According to the Derby website, the trophy’s design was commissioned by the “legendary” Churchill Downs President Col. Matt Winn in 1924. The horseshoe is positioned the way it is because racing superstition holds that if a horseshoe is pointed with its open end down, luck will “run out” of it.
Find Old Trophies, Buy Some Luck of Your Own
Odds are that you will never find a trophy like that one at a yard or estate sale, or find a gold or gold-plated trophy either. But you will find silver-plated and even solid sterling trophies that you can recycle using a qualified silver refinery like Specialty Metals Smelting and Refining, the parent company of GoldRefiners.com.
Here are some places where your trophy hunting will reward you with profitable finds . . .
- eBay, where old trophies are always for sale.
- Auction houses.
- Antique malls and stores.
- Estate and house sales.
- On Craigslist and other sites that list items for sale.
If you’d like to make a bigger commitment to trophy hunting, consider running an ad in local papers that says, “I Buy Silver and Silver-Plated Trophies.” You can also put that message up on Craigslist under “wanted” and see who contacts you.
When you snag gold or silver stuff, give us a call at 800-426-2344. We are here to answer all your refining and recycling questions.
Related Posts:
How to Make Money Buying Precious Metals on eBay
Why Older Rings, Trophies and Beer Steins are Worth Searching for and Recycling
Don’t Fall Victim to “Cash for Gold” Scams
“How Much Gold Is in my Body” and Answers to Six Other Wild and Crazy Questions about Gold
