And the Winner of the Super Bowl Takes… Silver?

(Mike Maharrey, Money Metals News Service) The Super Bowl may be one of the most popular sporting contests in the world. In 2024, over 120 million people tuned into the game.

I have to say, for such a big event, the trophy awarded to the winner is rather pedestrian. I mean, isn’t the goal in sports to “go for the gold?”

Well, not in the NFL.

It’s all about the silver.

The Philadelphia Eagles dominated the Kansas City Chiefs to capture the Lombardi Trophy, giving MVP quarterback Jalen Hurts an opportunity to hoist it for the first time.

The Lombardi Trophy looks impressive. It stands just under 2 feet tall and weighs in at about 7 pounds. It features a regulation-sized football on a pedestal.

The trophy is formed out of sterling silver. Sterling is an alloy containing 92.5 percent by weight of silver and 7.5 percent by weight of other metals, usually copper.

A Lombardi trophy is valued at around $10,000. That’s mostly because — well — it’s the Lombardi Trophy. If you melted the trophy down, you’d get about 93.5 troy ounces of pure silver. At the current price of silver, that’s worth just over $2,990.

The value of last year’s trophy was around $2,111, based on the price of silver at the time of the game. That just goes to show that despite the prevailing sense that silver underperformed last year, it hasn’t exactly been a slouch.

Now, imagine if the trophy was made of gold. At just over 102 troy ounces, it would be worth over $292,900 at the current gold price.

The Lombardi Trophy was designed by Tiffany & Co. According to The Sporting News, company VP Oscar Riedener sketched out the design for the trophy on a napkin for NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle back in 1966.

The first Lombardi was awarded in 1967, and all of the Super Bowl trophies have been produced in Tiffany’s hollowware workshop in Cumberland, Rhode Island.

The trophy is hand-crafted, and it takes about 72 total hours of labor. Sterling silver must be heated to over 1,000 degrees to mold it into the trophy’s distinctive shape.

Interestingly, there is more than one Lombardi produced each year. The official trophy is awarded to the winning team, but Tiffany also produces several authorized replicas. Players on the winning team can even order one to take home.

When I said the trophy is rather pedestrian, I didn’t mean to denigrate it. It’s certainly pretty cool. But compared to other professional sports trophies…

Don’t get me wrong; winning a Lombardi would be amazing, but if you want to win a more valuable trophy and take home a lot more silver, you should take up ice hockey.

The Stanley Cup has an estimated value of $600,000. The cup itself is pure silver, and the base is made of sterling silver (.925 fine). The Stanley Cup weighs in at 34.5 pounds.

And how can you win the most valuable trophy in sports?

Play soccer.

The FIFA World Cup trophy is formed from solid 18-karat gold with a weight of over 11 pounds. The melt value of the gold itself comes in at well over $100,000, but the estimated value of the trophy is over $20 million.

Of course, these trophies all have subjective value because of what they represent. It takes tremendous discipline, dedication, blood, sweat, and tears to win a championship. But even if you don’t play sports, you can still enjoy owning gold and silver.

Mike Maharrey is a journalist and market analyst for MoneyMetals.com with over a decade of experience in precious metals. He holds a BS in accounting from the University of Kentucky and a BA in journalism from the University of South Florida.