Genuine, authentic,Very rare in High Grade Condition, Commemorative Participation Medal from the Athens 1896 Olympic Games. This type of medals were circulated during the First International Olympiad of the modern era, which took place in Athens, Greece from 25 Μarch to 3 April, 1896.

  The “obverse” of the Athens 1896 Commemorative Participation Medal depicts a female figure representing ELLAS (Greece), clad in an Attic peplos and seated on the ruins of ancient monuments. She holds a laurel wreath in one hand and a sceptre in the other. Shown in the background is the Parthenon on the Acropolis “emitting light” towards all directions. The reborn Phoenix under the figure’s right hand symbolizes the rebirth of the Olympic Games after an interruption of more than 1,500 years. On the figure’s left is the inscription OΛΥΜΠΙΑΚΟΙ ΑΓΩΝΕΣ, 776 πΧ – 1896, representing the year that the Olympic Games were born in antiquity and the year of the first international Olympiad.

On the “reverse” of the medal there is an engraved inscription in Greek language: ΔΙΕΘΝΕΙΣ ΟΛΥΜΠΙΑΚΟΙ ΑΓΩΝΕΣ ΑΘΗΝΗ’ΣΙ 1896 (Athens 1896 International Olympic Games), surrounded by a laurel wreath. The medal was designed by renown artist Nikiforos Lytras, one of the biggest Greek painters of the 19th century and also a professor at the Athens School of Fine Arts.

The medals were minted by Willhelm Pittner, in Vienna, Austria (W. Pittner, Wien).

 Bronze Commemorative Medal.  Diameter: 50 mm,  Thickness: 4 mm,  Weight: 58 g,  in Extremely Fine Condition FDC.