Mysterious 2012 Olympic medal reaches $45,500

A mysterious London 2012 Olympics gold winner's medal has sold for $45,577.

It starred in RR Auction's July 21 sale of Olympic memorabilia.

2012 Olympic medal
Medals from the 2012 Olympic Games are extremely rare on the market

The auction house stated in the run-up to the sale: "Any winner's medals from more recent Olympic Games are extremely scarce and this is one of the very first London 2012 gold medals to be publicly offered."

The seller of the lot wishes to remain anonymous and so only the event and discipline will be revealed to the successful bidder.

However, it's likely to have been awarded to the winner of one of the less well-known sports.

As an auction house spokesperson explained to the Daily Mail: "It's not rare for athletes from around the world to face financial hardship depending on what events they're in."

Other lots included a torch from the Calgary 1988 Olympics, which made $37,730.

The torch was designed after the city's iconic tower and is one of around 150 produced for the 6,500 mile relay across Canada.

In addition, the lot included a rare "mother flame" lamp which was lit from the original fire and was used to relight the torches along the way.

It's designed to resemble a traditional miner's lamp, in reference to the region's importance as a centre for mining.

You can check out all our sports memorabilia for sale here.

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