1924 Olympiad Gold (sort of)

Continuing with Top eBay Chess Items by Price, the object pictured below was not the most expensive chess item sold on eBay over the past two weeks, but it was certainly the most unusual. The title was 'OLYMPIC GAMES PARIS 1924 CHESS INTERNATIONAL MACH MEDAL' (I'm sure that should be 'MATCH' instead of 'MACH') and it sold for US $565.55 after receiving eight bids from four bidders.

The description said,

INTERNATIONAL CHESS TOURNAMENT IN THE OCCASIONS OF THE VIII OLYMPICS GAMES HELD IN PARIS, FRANCE, 1924 • NAMED TO THE CHESS MASTER KAREL SKALICKA

Karel Skalicka (Carlos Skalicka) (1 November 1896 – 1979) was a Czech–Argentine chess master. In 1924, he won a team gold medal for Czechoslovakia (Hromádka, Schulz, Vanek, Skalicka) in the 1st unofficial Chess Olympiad in Paris. He took 3rd in group eliminations (Anatol Tshepurnoff won), and tied for 21-31st in the major tournament (Karesl Hromádka won). The final tournament (Amateur World Championship) was won by Hermanis Matisons.

That second paragraph, taken from Wikipedia's entry on Karel Skalicka. was followed by a list of Skalicka's chess exploits, also from Wikipedia. A further description of the medal said,

Real nice artistic medal plaque signed by the Scuptor Jean-Marie Delpech. • At EDGE: "CUIVRE" and Hallmark. • Golden Copper - 67mm. X 45mm. - 74.14grams. • VISIBLE CONDITION • REAL RARE MEDAL PRIZE

For more about the 1924 Olympiad, see Chess Olympiad: Paris 1924, on Olimpbase.org.