1935 Nobel Physics Prize MEDAL obverse, valu

Nobel Prize medal (obverse):
23 K gold; 66 mm. ” diameter; 206.8 grams

Early press coverage of sale of Chadwick Nobel prize:

From Bulletin .. of .. the .. Atomic .. Scientists , .. May/Jun1998, Vol. .. 54 .. Issue .. 3, .. p. .. 9: ." Going for the Gold"

When James Chadwick, a British member of the Manhattan Project team and a 1935 Nobel Prize winner, died in 1995, the event received little attention. His biographer, oncologist Andew Brown. says one reason may be that Chadwick, who he describes as extremely shy, retreated into the laboratory after World War II. As for Chadwick's Nobel. his daughters simply sold the medal and the award certificate that went with it. They are now in the hands of a Chicago collector, Jeffrey Schramek, .. who .. is .. offering .. them .. for .. resale…

VENDOR’S . NOTE: Chadwick . died, . not . in . 1995 . as . stated .. above, .. but .. in .. 1974.                                                                                                                   -----------------------------------------------------------

Jon Van and Jon Bigness., “NEW TOLL-FREE NUMBER, 877, COULD ADD TO CALLER CONFUSION THIS SPRING”, Chicago Tribune, March 16, 1998, . Section .. 3 .. (BUSINESS) .. p. .. 2:
Historic prize: Getting a Nobel Prize is the dream of most scientists, and a few have been known to go to great lengths in their efforts to win one, grabbing credit for research mostly done by others or stretching the importance of one's own research to make it appear more .. worthy.
The one thing they don't do is try to buy one outright, which may be too bad for Chicagoan Jeffrey Schramek, because he has one to sell. A few years ago, Schramek, a collector, bought the Nobel Prize medal and award certificate given to Sir James Chadwick of Liverpool University in 1935 when he won the prize in physics for discovering .. the .. neutron.
"His two daughters decided to sell it," said Schramek. "It's very rare to hear of a Nobel being for sale. I have heard of rumors,….”

one of the fathers of the nuclear age, for discovering the neutron in 1932. This award is one of the most significant imaginable 20th Century historical objects likely to ever become available for private purchase for a price at all affordable to non-billionaires. It is not only of museum quality, but is of the quality that museums are built around, and is of a magnitude that could warrant the creation of a museum with this as the collection's central object.
Chadwick's discovery is generally considered one of the greatest discoveries ever, and was listed by Time Magazine as one of the 100 milestones of the 20th Century; his researching of prospects for an A-bomb early in WWII is one of the epic stories in the history of science.

The Nobel Prize award to Sir James Chadwick consisted of gold medal, exquisite hand-painted binder-diploma , and officially-numbered presentation book about Alfred Nobel (from the Nobel Foundation).
Included is an archive of impressive dossiers (in presentation folders containing hundreds of pages of research about the Nobel Prize and Chadwick, and dozens of books (scroll down for list) about the Nobel Prize, Chadwick, and (his participation in) 20th century physics.
Also included are an official Chadwick portrait photo , and an accompanying group of other Nobel Prize-related Medals (e.g. for casting votes on Laureate nominees) struck by Royal Swedish Mint

A high price for this Chadwick Nobel Prize archive group is justified due to the rising importance of Chadwick in scholarly assessments of 20th century history, and due to the overarching prestige (and rarity on the collecting market) of the Nobel Prize.
Chadwick's Nobel Prize set can have great appeal to status-conscious collectors (and would-be collectors) the world over, from (A) executives whose firms work with neutrons, to (B) coin collectors who pay millions for "rare" U.S. nickels", to (C) art collectors who do not know, and never imagined, that one could actually obtain important Nobel Prize- related art.
The above reference to would-be collectors refers to persons who would never collect anything already known to be available, partly because they have disdain for the objects known to be popularly collected, save for the profound objects (e.g. Rembrandts) the prices of which are too high; these people view most collecting as diletanttish behavior, but would reconsider if an object of real profundity were to be available at a fraction of the price of a Rembandt.

All of this is possible because (A) the phrase "Nobel Prize" is as famous and respected as any, (B) because the neutron is very famous and important, and Chadwick's Nobel Prize set is thus the most important of those few ever to appear on the market, and (C) because Chadwick's reputation holds up to that of almost any modern historical figure, save for those figures whose Nobel Prize sets are in museums or are otherwise fated to never appear on the market.

In this collecting field (awards), the difference in prices between items given to minor, as opposed to monumental, persons is shown by the difference in prices brought by badges of the US Society of the Cincinnati: badges attributed to recipients of minor historical importance may or may not sell when offered for a few thousand dollars, but the badge given by George Washington's family to the Marquis de Lafayette brought (with commissions) over $5 million in a recent Sotheby's sale.
Chadwick's overall stature in 20th century world history is, if not comparable to Lafayette's stature in 18th century world history, then broadly competitive with Lafayette's stature. The climax of Chadwick's career was his central role in the making of the A-bomb, from his ground-breaking research (under the brutal conditions of Nazi bombing of his Liverpool lab in 1941) to his years in the US as head of the U.K. Mission of scientists assisting in the Manhattan Project (during which his duties took him to Chicago, New York, Los Alamos, NM, Oak Ridge, TN, and Washington, D.C.).

Normally, Nobel medals and diplomas of this magnitude are considered national treasures, and remain in the hands of the recipient's family or are displayed prominently in a national museum. A good example
of the treatment accorded to Nobel Prizes of this magnitude is the story of the George Marshall 1953 Nobel Peace Prize at the George C. Marshall Museum on the campus of the Virginia Military Institute. In this case, the Marshall family has temporarily lent this Nobel Prize to the H.S. Truman Presidential Museum, where this object became the most important piece around which the museum exhibit revolves, as is reflected on its web site .

The Chadwick Nobel medal is the only one for sale on the world-wide web, and would be appropriate as the backbone of a museum illustrating the history and destiny of cutting-edge science, just as the Marshall Nobel is the focal point of the Marshall WWII museum. We at Awards of Outstanding International Importance would be interested in hearing of any example of an available 20th Century object to equal this Nobel Prize in its combination of: historical importance, long-term value, name-recognition, (as a household word) rarity, (deserved) prestige, and physical and aesthetic impressiveness, (see Chadwick Testimonials page for letter from Dr. B. Feldman on diploma's splendid quality) save for Master works of art selling for tens of millions of dollars.

Chadwick's Nobel set is the most important one likely to appear for sale for the foreseeable future; those more important are where they should be, in museums or other major institutional archives. All knowledgeable persons consulted by us agree that the only Nobel up for sale since WWII, which perhaps compares to Chadwick's, was Fleming's, (medal only, for discovering penicillin) which was withdrawn from a 1988 Sotheby's sale, and is now held as a state treasure in a British museum.

It should go without saying that this Nobel set is more significant than the Mark McGuire home run record baseball, which brought $2.7 million at auction, despite this ball's obvious lack of world-treasure status. (A good day for our culture it will be when a Nobel Prize is known to have sold for more than this baseball.) With us now in an era of worldwide financial crisis, with ever-greater concern that harsh realities will overcome the myopia of recent decades, now would seem to be a most likely time for a "return to basics" change in the zeitgeist, away from the emphasis on glamor which so (seemed to) characterize the phony-boom decades of the 80's, 90's, and since. The time is ripe for a return to the sort of core virtues which civilizations require to pass the harsh tests which history sometimes hurls, the sort of core virtues which Chadwick's career epitomized: discipline, modesty, trustworthiness.

   All experts on Chadwick's era in physics regard him as having lived an exemplary, interesting, and historically important if not epic life. Without Chadwick's discovery in 1932, nuclear fission, and thus the A-bomb, would have been achieved too late to be used against Japan to decide the end of WWII; thus the U.S. and U.S.S.R. would probably have ended up undeterred from later waging nuclear war against each other.    Until recently, Chadwick's major contribution to the success of the Manhattan Project, including in his role as Senior British Advisor, had been obscured by his tendency to shun the limelight.   He has since been described as having been Project chief Gen. Groves' "viceroy among the scientists", and he wrote the decisive MAUD Report, which persuaded FDR to launch the Manhattan Project, in 1941.
    Chadwick's key role is aptly portrayed by: (1) the title of a major biography by Dr. Andrew Brown, The Neutron and the Bomb; (2) a chapter therein, "The scientist-diplomat" (Chadwick was the first, and greatest, as a novice); (3) a U.K. review thereof ("How the Bomb's creator learned to love the United States"); (4) a U.S. review thereof ending with "like the neutron he discovered, Chadwick moved unnoticed - but with awesome power;" and (5) numerous comments about his role in the birth of atomic power by American statesman McGeorge Bundy, in his book Danger and Survival: Choices about the Bomb in the First Fifty Years.    Chadwick always wanted his discovery of the neutron to contribute to cancer treatments.    His preference for anonymity led him to concede iconic status as the Bomb's creator to the limelight-addicts Oppenheimer (not a Nobel Laureate, and unknown until his role at Los Alamos) and Einstein, (barred from the Manhattan Project as a security risk) despite the length and depth of Chadwick's involvement and contribution, which at minimum matched those of anyone.   That Einstein, not Chadwick, is seen as the Bomb's grandfather owes to Einstein's 1939 letter to FDR (warning that a Bomb was possible) being more famous, but less influential, than Chadwick's research. (Britons resent Americans' bent to ignore Britain's indispensable role in one of the mega-events of human history, the birth of atomic power.)
    Chadwick worked from a shoestring budget, using a cyclotron bought partly with his Nobel Prize money, while the Nazis were bombing his U. of Liverpool physics dept. and the rest of the city, in Spring 1941; conditions for Oppenheimer, etc., at Los Alamos were utterly blissful compared to those in 1941 Liverpool.    Few stories, esp. in the history of science, exceed this in its combination of high stakes and dramatic appeal.   U.S. officials delayed expenditure on a Bomb, until Chadwick, whose judgement as an important Nobel Laureate they most respected, had personally verified this investment's viability.   As supervisor of all atomic researchers in Britain since June 1940, he was designated to write the final draft of the vital MAUD Report, which held that a Bomb was "not only possible, but inevitable;" presentation of MAUD to Roosevelt in Fall 1941 led FDR to order launching of the Manhattan Project, which more than any other factor would define the U.S. to be a superpower.   Respected Bomb scholar R. Rhodes notes that Allied statesmen's real doubts, regarding this unprecedentedly-costly proposal's viability, required them to have unprecedented trust in their scientists' judgement; thus Chadwick was one of the decisive movers of the 20th Century.
    It was the expenditure of Chadwick's Nobel Prize money, toward the cyclotron used in his historic 1940-41 experiments, which probably put his daughters in the financial position which led to them selling their father's Nobel Prize medal and diploma, rather than their donating it to a museum, as is usually done with such Nobel sets; this Nobel Prize . is . unique . in . the circumstances . leading to its appearance on the world market.
   Chadwick's Nobel is a world treasure, worthy of being the focus of a museum. As gilt Best-Picture Oscars bring $15,000- $1.5 million, what might the best gold & hand-painted Nobel set be worth?

  We are very interested in any information anyone might be willing to provide as to the history of transactions involving any Nobel Prize medals or diplomas, eg. in private sales or obscure auctions.

Those with information or questions can telephone J. Schramek in the U.S. at 773-539-5751; the e-mail is: buynobel@sbcglobal.net.

The Significance of the Nobel Foundation's reaction to J. Schramek's acquisition of Sir James Chadwick's Nobel Prize . set: do other objects (even those costing tens of millions of dollars) get treated with as much regard? .
In 2000, the Nobel Foundation graciously invited J. Schramek to visit its headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden, allowing him to examine the only Nobel Prize diploma in its archives.

In October 2006, Swedish (National) Television graciously invited J. Schramek to be interviewed about Sir James Chadwick's Nobel Prize set, in Chicago; this interview was telecast across Sweden during the intermission of the telecast of the Nobel Prize award ceremonies, 10 December 2006; this invitation was conveyed in a (unsolicited) telephone call, from a Swedish Television representative to J. Schramek in Fall 2005. .

As the Nobel Prize award ceremonies are the Event of the Year in Sweden (if not in the whole of Europe), for Chadwick's Nobel Prize set to have been deemed a fit subject for part of the Telecast of the Year, is arguably the most significant possible gesture of regard that could have been paid to Chadwick's Nobel Prize group, (excepting live media coverage of a ceremony opening an exhibition of his group in a most prestigious . public place). .

Surely most of the objects which have sold for many millions of dollars, have been subject to some sort of major media coverage (e.g. on Nightly News programs), mostly because of the large sum brought by such objects, rather than because of the intrinsic significance of the objects in question; but, have any of these objects (which have brought many millions of dollars) been anywhere treated with the regard shown to Chadwick's Nobel Prize set, i.e. being the focus of attention, for two and one-half minutes during the Telecast of the Year, precisely due to the objects' significance, regardless of sum paid?

J. Schramek at
Nobel Foundation
Headquarters
in Stockholm,
June 2000

Awards of Outstanding International Importance to Statesmen and Heroines

Exhibit of Nobel Prize medal, George C.
Marshall Museum, Lexington, Virginia, USA
(Courtesy of Paula N. Cushman of the
George C. Marshall Foundation).

Telephone 773-539-5751
FAX 773-304-0131
Postal address
P.O. Box 300791, Chicago, IL 60630, USA
Electronic mail
General Information: buynobel@sbcglobal.net
Prices available upon request.

The Sir James Chadwick Nobel Prize Archive

An Interview about Sir James Chadwick's Nobel Prize group, with J. Schramek, was shown on Swedish Television, during (the intermission of) the nationwide telecast of the Nobel Prize ceremonies, on 10 December 2006.

1935 Nobel Prize in Physics medal (obverse)

Chadwick's Nobel Prize is the best one likely to appear on the market for the forseeable future. Does anyone believe that any one of the institutions listed below would sell its Nobel Prize Medal for anything less than millions of dollars?

                Consider the Locations of the Nobel Prize Medals
                            of the most significant Laureates
.
Neils Bohr..................... Danish Historical Museum..... Fredriksborg, Denmark
Jimmy Carter................. (still living) Carter Library.................... Atlanta, USA
Sir Winston Churchill....   Chartwell (Churchill's home).............................. UK
Marie Curie.................... (both at) Curie Museum.................. Warsaw, Poland
Dalai Lama, XIV............ (still living)
Albert Einstein............... Hebrew University.......................... Jerusalem, Israel
Enrico Fermi.................. University of Chicago...................................... USA
Sir Alexander Fleming.... National War Museum of Scotland...... Edinburg, UK
Mikhail Gorbachev......... (still living)
Martin Luther King Jr..... M.L. King Center................................ Atlanta, USA
Mother Teresa................ Mother House.................................. Calcutta, India
George C. Marshall......... Virginia Military Institute................................. USA
Theodore Roosevelt........ The White House........................................... USA
Earl Bertrand Russell...... McMaster University............ Hamilton, ON, Canada
Lord Ernest Rutherford... Nelson Museum..................... Nelson, New Zealand
George Bernard Shaw..... National Museum of Ireland.............. Dublin, Ireland
Woodrow Wilson........... Woodrow Wilson House.... Washington, D.C., USA

Chadwick's receipt of his Nobel Prize

N.Y. Times 1974 obituary

Together with Chadwick's Nobel Prize diploma, the Nobel Foundation presentation book and the Chadwick portrait photo; the accompanying archive of related books and research dossiers; and the accompanying group of other Nobel Prize objects made by the Royal Swedish Mint, etc.; the Chadwick Nobel Prize Archive constitutes a ready-made museum exhibit.

Chadwick is known (esp. in Britain) as

(1) the A-Bomb's co-Creator, credited specifically by Churchill with "sparing no effort" to win the Bomb race vs. Hitler's physicists, thereby relieving Churchill and his gov't of "profound anxiety";
.
(2) chief researcher in Britain's epic, pioneering studies of nuclear energy (conducted under the grueling circumstances of the all-but-constant WWII Nazi aerial bombing of the environs of his Liverpool lab) using a cyclotron bought with his Nobel Prize money;
.
(3) author of the historic (1941) MAUD Report, which persuaded FDR to launch the Manhattan Project (contrary to the popular belief that FDR was persuaded by the famous 1939 Einstein letter);
.
(4) General Groves' "Viceroy among the Scientists" in the A-bomb Project, (which quickly became one of the legendary stories of modern times) and thus the first great Scientist-Diplomat; leader in the transition from "little science" to "Big science".

The importance of Chadwick's Nobel Prize is shown in
the Atomic History Timeline 1900- 1942,
by the (US) Atomic Heritage Foundation.
The entry quoted below is the only one in which bestowal of a Nobel Prize is considered significant enough to warrant mention (as a seperate, complete entry):
.
"December, 1935 - Chadwick wins Nobel Prize for discovery of the neutron."
.
From http://www.atomicheritage.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=287&Itemid=200

J.A. Schramek
& Associates

Mineral Chadwickite
(from http://www.nuclearfaq.ca/cnf_sectionG.htm )
Chemical formula: (UO2)H(AsO3)
Molecular weight: 393.96 60.42
Percent of Uranium: 60.42

Locality found: Wittichen in the Black Forest, Aufschluss, Germany.
From granite in dump material at the Sophia mine, central Black Forest.

Named after Sir James Chadwick (1891-1974), English physicist Cavendish Laboratory, University

Neither Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, nor George Soros are known to own any Nobel Prize medals, (let alone one of the importance of Chadwick's) despite the massive wealth of each man. Were we at Awards of Outstanding International Importance to be in the financial position of any of these men, we would not consider anything but a gargantuan price (e.g. tens of millions of dollars) for Chadwick's Nobel Prize set. One-tenth of 1% of Bill Gates' wealth would mean over $50 million.

This Nobel Prize set is (from a certain standpoint*) the most fateful Science Prize ever bestowed, in that he deployed the accompanying Prize money in a most fateful way: toward buying the instrument (a cyclotron) which was central to his spring 1941 research (conducted while under the duress of Nazi aerial bombs exploding near his lab) which found that (in his words) "a nuclear bomb was not only possible, but inevitable"; this feat (and others) made him the greatest hero (save for Oppenheimer and Groves) of the Allies' WWII race to beat Hitler to the A-bomb.

* the most fateful Nobel Science Prize ever bestowed, in that in no other case was the accompanying Prize money spent to buy an instrument so crucial to research so fateful as that regarding the prospects for a nuclear bomb, this research comprising the Allied entry in earnest in the race for the bomb, vs. a Nazi Empire which, at that very time, was at the height of its influence.

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At c. "8 o'clock": "E.LINDBERG 1902"

At c. "8 o'clock":
"E.LINDBERG 1902"

Nobel Prize medal
with spectacular award diploma, presented
.
to Sir James Chadwick (1891-1974)

Prices available
upon request