Heritage Offers Nobel Prize Certified by NGC

Numismatic Guaranty Company® (NGC®) is proud to have certified a Nobel Prize that was awarded to Harald zur Hausen, a German cancer researcher. The Nobel Prize is among more than 900 NGC-certified coins and medals being offered in Heritage Auctions' ANA World & Ancient Coins Platinum Session and Signature® Auction, which will be held August 15-17, 2024.

The 2008 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine Medal is graded NGC MS 67 and encapsulated in an NGC Oversize Holder because of its diameter of 66 mm (about 2.6 inches). Zur Hausen shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 2008 for leading a team of researchers in the 1980s who discovered a link between human papillomavirus and cancer.

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The obverse of the medal shows a bust of Alfred Nobel (1833-1896), along with the years of his birth and death in Roman numerals. The name of the sculptor (E. Lindberg) and the year it was sculpted (1902) are included near the rim.

The reverse, also designed by Erik Lindberg, features a female figure representing medicine above H. ZUR HUASEN MMVIII, the name of the Nobel laureate and the year the prize was awarded. Arching over the scene is the Latin phrase "Inventas vitam iuvat excoluisse per artes," which pays tribute to those who improve life through discoveries. Zur Hausen passed away in 2023.

Nobel was the Swedish inventor of dynamite who used his fortune to establish the Nobel Prize. The initial Nobel Prizes were awarded in 1901 in the fields of Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature and Peace. A prize for Economics was added in 1968, funded by Sveriges Riksbank, the Central Bank of Sweden.

It is rare for a Nobel Prize to be offered at auction. In 2013, the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Medal awarded to Francis Crick for his groundbreaking DNA research realized $2.27 million. In 2015, the 1966 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Medal awarded to virus researcher Francis Peyton Rous realized $461,000. In 2022, the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize Medal awarded to Dmitry Muratov and Maria Ressa for their humanitarian efforts realized $103.5 million. Each of these medals sold through Heritage Auctions.

NGC has certified some of the world's rarest medals and medallions. They include:

• a Gold Medallion struck under Roman Emperor Diocletian (AD 284-305) graded NGC Ancients Ch AU★, 5/5 Strike and 5/5 Surface with Fine Style, which realized $2.3 million in a Classical Numismatic Group auction in 2023
• astronaut Neil Armstrong's Gold Robbins Medal graded NGC MS 67 and pedigreed to the Apollo 11 moon mission, which realized $2.055 million in a Heritage Auctions sale in 2019
• a Congressional Gold Medal that was awarded to William Henry Harrison graded NGC MS 60 PL, which realized $600,000 at a Sedwick auction in 2023
• several Olympic medals, including the first Olympic Gold Medal for Basketball, which was awarded to the captain of the US team at the 1936 Berlin Summer Olympics