14 DAY TRIAL // In just a few days, an otherwise perfectly ordinary guy or gal with a heck lot of money to spare will get to take home a Nobel Prize gold medal. Contrary to custom, it won't be because of a kick-ass discovery they chanced to make while going about their day-to-day business.
The Nobel Prize gold medal that is soon to have a brand new home and very proud owner is the one won by American molecular biologist, geneticist and zoologist James Watson back in 1962 for the discovery of the structure of DNA.
Buying a secondhand Nobel Prize gold medal
Come December 4, James Watson's award for the discovery of the makeup of DNA will be auctioned off in New York City, US. Folks with auction house Christie's expect that the Nobel prize gold medal will fetch some $2.5 million (roughly €2 million).
With a little bit of luck, the award might even sell for as much as $3.5 million (about €2.8 million). Unfortunately, the gold medal won't be auctioned off together with the prestige and the standing ovations molecular biologist James Watson got when he announced his discovery.
It will, however, be auctioned off together with the handwritten notes the scientist used when he delivered his acceptance speech, and a draft of the lecture he gave the day following the Nobel Prize ceremony that saw him being awarded this medal.
Christie's expects that the lecture draft that will too be sold in New York City, US, this coming December 4 will fetch at least $200,000 (some €160,000). Sure, this might sound like pocket change when compared to the gold medal's estimated worth, but it's a pretty impressive price tag nonetheless.
The gold medal, a photo of which is included in the gallery below, is made of 23 carat gold. It has a diameter of 66 millimeters (about 2.6 inches), and it shows the profile bust of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish chemist who invented dynamite and who established the Nobel Prizes in a will and testament he signed back in 1895.
How James Watson came to win the medal
As mentioned, American molecular biologist won the Nobel Prize gold medal set to be auctioned off on December 4 for the discovery of the twisted-ladder structure of DNA. The scientist worked on this research project together with Maurice Hugh Frederick Wilkins and Francis Harry Compton Crick, who each got their own medal for their work.
The three researchers were honored for their find in a ceremony held on December 10, 1962, in Stockholm, Sweden's capital city. Interestingly enough, it was last year that Francis Crick's Nobel Prize medal was auctioned off as well and sold for an impressive $2 million (€1.6 million).
As far as the medal awarded to Maurice Wilkins is concerned, it appears that this piece of memorabilia is still in the possession of the molecular biologist's family. For the time being, there are no rumors that this third medal might soon be put up for auction as well.
