As we all know, the quadrennial World Cup is the most influential football event in the history of modern sports. Through many tests, defeat all kinds of heroes, in order to climb to the top of the world and raise the Gold Cup, the gold content of the World Cup event is self-evident. Under the great influence of the previous World Cups, various long guns and short guns have been exposed in the close-up shots, and the shape and name of the Hercules Cup are also widely known to fans.
Speaking of the history of the World Cup trophy, veteran fans will probably know that the Hercules Cup is the second-generation World Cup trophy, and the first-generation World Cup trophy is the Remit Cup. Before discussing the cost of the Hercules Cup, it is advisable to review the history of the World Cup trophy with the author's ink.
Back in 1929, after the establishment of the Fifa World Cup, the organizing committee recruited the French sculptor Abel Lavre to design the trophy, based on the Greek myth of the goddess of victory Nej, with lapis lazuli as the base and sterling silver gilded gold casting remit cup officially launched. As for the origin of the name of the trophy, it is to commemorate the former president of FIFA, Jules Remitt, who has been in office for 33 years.
In the 1970 World Cup, Brazil won the World Cup for the third time. In honor of samba, according to the rules laid down by Jules Remitt in 1930, brazil can keep the Remit Cup permanently. However, 13 years after the Brazilians put the Remit Cup into the headquarters of the Brazilian Football Association, the Remit Cup was stolen by four thieves who broke into the headquarters, and it has not been recovered, and it is believed that the genuine trophy of that year no longer exists. Holding such a well-known stolen goods, it is difficult for thieves to deal with without exposure, the best way has been the thief burned the piano to boil the crane, after winning the hand, it will be directly melted into metal to sell cash, and the trophy will no longer exist.
The words are divided into two ends, after talking about the unfortunate encounter of the Remit Cup, and then returning to the birth of the Hercules Cup. Since the Remit Cup has been used as a special prize and can no longer be used, it is natural for FIFA to redesign an iconic trophy for the next World Cup. After a public tender for a design competition, the proposal, which was contested by Italian designer Silvio Gazzani, won.
Under Ghazani's brush, the trophy spirals up from the base, and the appearance of the trophy pattern is that two Hercules lift the earth. Therefore, the new World Cup trophy was called the "Hercules Cup". Considering that the World Cup had become a very influential and gold-sucking competition at that time, FIFA naturally wanted to pursue the card face in the trophy.
The entire Hercules Cup, with a height of 36.8 cm and a weight of 6.1 kg. The base of the trophy is 13.1 cm in diameter and consists of two pieces of extremely high-quality malachite, while the rest is made of 18K gold weighing about 4.97 kg, which is nearly double the gold content of the previous Remit Cup.
At the time of the Hercules Cup, the mainstream world in Europe and the United States was still at the end of the Bretton Woods system, and the gold price at that time was about $36 per ounce. Converted to 18K gold with a gold content of 75%, the price of about 18K gold per ounce is $27, which translates to about $0.95 per gram.
Today, the price of gold per ounce has soared to $1770+ at $56 per gram, and to 18K gold for $42 per gram.
Through such a simple conversion, we can know that the value of the golden portion of the Hercules Cup alone is currently $210,000. According to reports that year, FIFA spent a total of $50,000 to build the Hercules Cup around that year, and the cost of raw materials was about 15%.
This is not difficult to understand, the Hercules Cup is not directly made of two pieces of malachite + a large lump of gold, but a super artwork created through the Design and Fine Casting Link, and the raw material cost is only a small cost.
What is the current level of the total design cost of the Hercules Cup of about $50,000? If the rise in gold is used to calculate the overall cost increase, the cost of the Hercules Cup will now be as high as $2.2 million. Of course, we are only talking about the value of the trophy itself, excluding the additional value created by the additional meaning.
Considering the high value and significance of the Hercules Cup, and the fact that the Remit Cup was handed over to the winning country for safekeeping and was a precedent that had been stolen during the period when the Brazilian team that achieved the Triple Crown as a reward was given, FIFA made an early statement that the Hercules Cup was officially held by FIFA and would not be held by the national team that had achieved multiple championship victories.
The national team that won the world cup in that year can nominally hold the genuine before the next World Cup, but in fact will receive a copper gilded Hercules cup imitation. In a sense, it is precisely because of this special setting that the Hercules Cup itself as a trophy has become more legendary and more classic.