The ANSA McAL group has placed a $25,000 bid for the 18-carat Order of the Republic of T&T (ORTT) medal awarded to trade unionist Adrian Cola Rienzi, which is now up for sale on eBay.
The group’s chairman A Norman Sabga said in a statement, “ANSA McAL has decided to place the bid of US$25,000 to ensure that this historic piece of T&T is duly returned to our nation in preservation of its bestowed honour and dignity.”
The medal was awarded posthumously to Rienzi by the Kamla Persad-Bissessar administration in 2012, and the seller is including the original award document, signed by President George Maxwell Richards and stamped with the Presidential Seal. As of last evening, there had been one bid on the of US$25,000.
The medal was put on auction for seven days and there are three days remaining on the auction.
Recalling the award of the ORTT to ANSA’s Chairman Emeritus, Dr Anthony N Sabga, in 2011, the statement said further that the group “understands the significance and patriotic pride to have such an honour bestowed upon any citizen.”
If Ansa McAl’s bid is successful, Sabga hopes that President Anthony Carmona will support the decision to donate the medal to the National Museum.
“It will be a shame and dishonor to the country’s highest award and to the legacy of its awardee Adrian Cola Rienzi if the honour inherent in the ORTT medal is not returned to our beloved country,” the release further stated.
Second time sale
This will not be the first time the medal is being sold. The T&T Guardian contacted the eBay seller, and he told us that he had bought it legally from Rienzi’s estate.
“No disrespect is intended from the sale of this item,” the seller wrote in response to queries sent via eBay. “In fact, I am hoping it is purchased by someone in Trinidad and Tobago and sent ‘home’, possibly to be put on display for all to see, rather than sitting out of sight, and forgotten, in a desk or safety deposit box in a bank.”
According to the advertisement, the medal is “Unquestionably genuine, from the estate, and VERY RARE!”
The seller lists it as “massive at 105 grams and 75mm or just under 3 inches, in height for the medallion itself.”
President Anthony Carmona issued a statement yesterday, saying that he is distraught at “the prospect of someone peddling the symbol of our national honour and pride.”
Carmona said, “The Order of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is not a rag doll that is disposable. This ultimate symbol of our Nation’s pride and honour is sacrosanct. The intended sale of the ORTT medal offends one’s sense of patriotism.
How much is it really worth?
The T&T Guardian contacted Bobby’s Jewellery in Gulf City Mall in San Fernando, to try to find out how much it’s really worth.
A gramme of gold is between $500 and $600TT. Leave aside the fact that 18 karat is not pure gold—24 karat is, and therefore 18 karat is 75 per cent gold and 25 per cent other metals to harden it. Let us then apply the pure gold price to the metal contained in the medal.
At $600, and using an exchange rate of $6.5TT to the dollar, the raw street value of the gold in the medal is a little under US$10,000.
The extra US$15,000 would represent the combination of an excessive opening bid, and the intrinsic value—that is, its rarity, which makes it a collector’s item.