Ancient, Celtic, British and World Coins. Historical and Art Medals

Great Britain, A group of five Olympic and related medals awarded to Gordon R. Goodwin:
Olympic Games, Paris, 1924, a silver prize medal by A. Rivaud, two naked athletes, rev. sporting implements, 55mm (cf. BDW 5, 114); Olympic Games, Paris, 1924, a bronze Participant’s medal by R. Bénard, winged figure crowns athlete, rev. city view in cartouche, legend below, 55mm (cf. DNW 44, 993); Amateur Athletic Association, J.E. Fowler-Dixon Prize for Style in Walking, c.1925, a bronze award medal, unsigned, male walker left, rev. legend, un-named [but awarded 1926], 51mm; Olympic Games, London, 1948, a bronze medal by B. Mackennal and J.R. Pinches, Houses of Parliament in cartouche, rev. quadriga left, 51mm (BHM 4422; E 2076; MJP p.118; cf. DNW 37, 1128); Olympic Games, London, 1948, a uniface plated Athletics officials’ badge, depicting the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Bridge, 47 x 32mm (cf. BDW 7, 692) [5]. Very fine to extremely fine, first with tiny reverse edge nick at 7 o’clock but this very rare; first and fourth in fitted cases of issue [the 1924 case distressed]; a very rare group (£3,000-4,000)

Gordon Reginald Goodwin, from Leigh, Lancashire, was employed by Anchor Cable Co Ltd. He joined the Army in January 1915 and served throughout the rest of the War in France, Salonika and Turkey. In October 1919 he began competing in amateur athletics, winning his first race, a 2 mile running handicap. On 25 October 1919 he took part in his first walking race and, from 1920 to 1927 was increasingly successful at this discipline in events staged by the A.A.A., the Road Walking Association, Southern Counties A.A. and the Surrey Walking Club. A member of Surrey Walking Club, London Athletic Club, Leigh Harriers and the Lancashire Walking Club, Goodwin took part in the 1924 Olympic Games, where he finished a close second in the 10,000 metres walk to the 1920 Olympic gold medallist, Italian Ugo Frigerio. Goodwin also won the first of two heats marred by the ineffectiveness of the judges to eliminate an Austrian competitor for ‘contravening the definition of walking.’ In the final itself, another judge “continually harassed [Goodwin] by his suspicious and menacing attitude, going so far as to strike him, and even to bring up a cinema man to take a film of his walking. Fortunately…Goodwin was allowed to remain on the track, despite the urgent requests of his persecutor, whose Anglophobe activities ceased immediately it was plain that the British walker had no chance of winning the event.” The year 1924 saw Goodwin at his peak, when he also secured the triple of 7 miles and 2 miles A.A.A. and 2 miles English championships. In 1926 he went to America and placed third in the International 3 Mile Walk held at Madison Square Gardens, New York. Sold with a quantity of illustrated newspaper cuttings from the period 1919-1927. First medal only illustrated above; also see Colour Plate VIII