10/08/2024 – 9:00
The owner of one of the world’s largest collections of Olympic coins and medals is Brazilian. Philosophy and physical education teacher Jerry Edson, 55, owns more than 10,000 pieces, which he estimates are worth more than US$1 million.
“I follow other collectors and I don’t know anyone who has such a large collection of coins and medals. I think I may be the biggest collector in South America,” he says. When it comes to Olympic items in general, however, he points out that Roberto Gesta de Melo, from Amazonas, has the most items.
+Rio 2016 Olympic coins are being sold online for up to R$3,700. How much are they really worth?
“Collecting for me is a way to connect with history, art and culture,” he says. “And my love for sports. I feel like I have to leave a legacy, and I know this collection will be important for children to see, young people to learn from, people to remember.”
In addition to Olympic coins and medals, he keeps money without this theme, autographs of figures such as Charles Chaplin, and Olympic stamps.
The Jerry Edson Collection
Born in Blumenau (SC), Jerry Edson has lived in São Paulo for over 30 years. He is a track and field competitor and holds records registered by the Brazilian Masters Athletics Association – a category for athletes over 35 years old. His income comes from occasional awards, but mainly from his career as a teacher.
He started collecting Olympic items in the early 2000s. The first piece was the first Olympic-themed coin ever made, a Finnish coin from 1951. “Because I wanted to start the collection from the beginning,” he says.
Paris 2024 small print run
However, the most expensive coin in the collection is extremely recent. Jerry Edson obtained a commemorative gold coin minted for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. It was a small edition of about a thousand items. To get his hands on one, he paid R$60,000.
“The market absorbed them all very quickly. Many went to the Asian market, few to the European market and none or almost none to America,” he explains. “Later, they appear, in about 10 years.”
Valuing parts in the market
This disappearance and reappearance occurs precisely because buyers acquire the pieces for their potential to increase in value. “They let them go at a profit, as an investment. In fact, it is an excellent investment,” says Edson.
A coin from the 1976 Montreal Olympics, for example, was purchased by Jerry Edson for around $1,000. Today, in addition to being harder to come by, it is valued at $5,000.
When he can’t go shopping in person, Jerry Edson relies on the help of friends who are traders and collectors. “This market is very closed at the moment, because it’s really appreciated.”
In Brazil, he sees the market as being especially heated and consequently more competitive and closed since the Rio-2016 Olympics, when many people started to pay attention to coins with this theme.
At the time, the Brazilian Central Bank issued four R$10 gold coins, 16 R$5 silver coins and 16 models of the R$1 coin to commemorate the games. All of them are in Edson’s collection.
“Today, these coins increase in value every day and are also highly sought after for investment and national Olympic sentiment,” says the collector.
Olympic medals
Numismatics, the field of study of banknotes and coins, also deals with medals. Jerry Edson is proud of important pieces that once belonged to Olympic athletes, such as a medal from the first modern Olympics, held in Athens in 1986.
“It’s also a very difficult piece to obtain,” Edson points out. “The traders got together and brought this piece from abroad, and they divided the profits between them. Since they know I’m a collector, they called me.”
Every year, participation medals are awarded. Jerry Edson has several, but the one from the first edition is especially rare.
Atlanta Medal 2016
The medals he considers to be the most important in his collection, however, hold a strong emotional value. In 2016, Jerry Edson bought at auction the silver medal won by Cláudia Pastor with the women’s basketball team in 1996.
The reason for the auction was to pay for surgery for his son, Maurílio, who was diagnosed with hypothalamic hamartoma, a type of tumor, at the age of 12. “It’s the greatest treasure I have, because I could save a child’s life,” says Edson. At the time, he paid around R$35,000 for the auction, using the severance pay he received from a job.
In a similar story, he acquired a gold medal won by Brazil at the 2004 Paralympic Games. In this case, the acquisition helped the recovery of an athlete who found himself in financial ruin after a messy divorce.
“I’ve tried to return Olympic medals to athletes a few times, and they refuse to take them,” says Jerry Edson. “I don’t buy them because I’m greedy. I also buy them because I want to help. I’ve always been helped a lot, and it’s a way of saying thank you, too.”
Olympic curiosities
To maintain and expand his collection, Jerry Edson constantly saves part of his earnings and makes financial plans. “If you don’t plan ahead, you’ll lose or mess up. Then you’ll start having to sell one piece to buy another.”
He also has many acquaintances and friends who are collectors and dealers, who are on the lookout for the most difficult pieces. In addition, he studies the existing bibliography to learn about rare and important items of Olympic numismatics.
“A curious fact about this theme is that no banknote has ever been issued on the subject. Only one was issued for the Winter Olympic Games,” comments Jerry Edson about the particularities of his collection.
Another highlight made by the collector is that there are Olympic coins that do not belong to the host countries. However, for the website’s article That ishe highlighted only coins minted by hosts in the year they hosted the games.
Check out some more highlights:
#Brazilian #Olympic #coins #medals #paid #R60000 #piece #Paris