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Winner's medal issued to British sprinter Guy Butler at the Antwerp 1920 Olympics. Gilt silver, 60 mm, 88 gm, by Josue Dupon. The front shows a victorious athlete holding a laurel wreath and palm branch, with a statue of Renommee in the background, inscribed "VII Olympiade"; the reverse depicts the Brabo fountain above the Antwerp shield, with the Cathedral of Our Lady and city looming in the background, inscribed above, "Anvers MCMXX." Bottom edge is stamped “A” for Argent and is engraved with the name of the event, the recipient, his teammates, and their placing: “U.K., 1st, G. M. B. Butler & (J. C. A. Davis, R. A. Lindsay, C. Griffiths), 1600 Meters Relay.” Accompanied by a silver-tone “Prize Medal” from Oxford & Cambridge Athletic Sports, 104 gm, 61 mm, with the reverse engraved: “1920, G. M. Butler, ¼ Mile, 49 ⅗.”
Sprinter Guy Butler (1899–1981) remains one of the most awarded runners in the long history of British Olympians. Butler’s four Olympic medals — this offered gold in the 4 x 400, an Antwerp silver in the 400-meter, and two bronzes in the same events in Paris four years later — tie him with athletes Sebastian Coe, Christine Ohuruogu, and Mo Farah for the most athletic medals in British Olympic history.
Hosting the Olympics in 1920 was a challenging endeavor so close to the end of the war. Because of financing problems for the Games, many shortcuts had to be taken; one of them was reducing the amount of gold plating on the first-place winner’s medals. Unfortunately, most of the gilding wore off almost immediately and, as is often the case, many of the medals appear almost silver. Faint traces of gilding can still be discerned in the medal’s low relief areas.
A total of 29 nations attended the VII Olympiad in Antwerp, Belgium, with Hungary, Germany, Austria, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire all banned from competing due to their involvement in World War I and the cancelation of the 1916 Games. Despite such political unrest, the return of the Games debuted a trinity of enduring Olympic traditions—the voicing of the Olympic Oath, the symbolic release of doves, and the initial flying of the Olympic flag. An exceptional first place medal of the utmost historical interest and rarity.
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