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Participation medal from the Athens 1896 Olympics. Gilt bronze, 50 mm, 59 gm, by W. Pittner, Austria. The front features a seated Nike holding a laurel wreath over a phoenix emerging from flames, with the Acropolis in the background; the reverse bears a star surmounted above five lines of Greek legend set within a laurel wreath. The immolation of the phoenix and its emergence from the ashes symbolizes the rebirth of the Olympic Games after a hiatus of more than 1,500 years. Complete with its leather presentation case, which bears trivial wear.
