Jesse Puljujärvi’s stolen gold medal “has no value in itself”, says an expert

Puljujärvi the gold medal disappeared at the world championship party. According to him, it was stolen in a karaoke bar in Helsinki.

Despite the name, only a small part of the gold medal is gold. Most of the gold medals awarded in sports competitions are mostly silver, says the museum manager of the Sports Museum Tahto Kalle Rantala.

“The gold is a vanishingly small part of the medal. Usually only the surface is gilded,” says Rantala, referring to gold medals in general.

For example, an Olympic gold medal is at least 92.5% silver. It only has about six grams of gold.

“I don’t think that there is an awful lot of gold in the medals of the International Ice Hockey Federation. There is probably some gold leaf on the surface (thin gold for decoration),” says Rantala.

According to the rules of the International Ice Hockey Federation, the medal must weigh at least 250 grams. The exact weight of this year’s medals or the proportions of different materials are not known.

According to Rantala’s assessment, the stolen medal from Puljujärvi should not be melted down and sold as scrap metal, because it would probably cost at least as much money to melt it down as you would get back from selling the melted metal.

The medal cannot be sold at auction, because the thief would be caught.

“A stolen medal has no value in itself [huutokaupassa]because its value cannot be realized except by another criminal,” Rantala points out.

In other words, the thief would only get a return on the medal by selling it illegally to another thief.

To Puljujärvi the medal must already have a great emotional value. If he gets his medal back, his value can also increase in the eyes of others.

“Of course, the story of the medal is always important in terms of value. The more interesting the story, the greater the value,” says Rantala.

On the other hand, Rantala points out that not all value can always be directly translated into monetary value.

“Objects always have a value that cannot be measured in money.”

According to Rantala, it is generally difficult to estimate the value of a medal at an auction, because the medal can be really valuable to some and not to others. The price is also affected by, for example, who the medal belonged to or where the medal was obtained.

Ice hockey World Cup medals have not been auctioned very often in Finland, Rantala recalls. In 2024, the guardian Tomi Mäkipään the legendary MM95 gold medal was sold for a total of 7,500 euros, Helsingin Sanomat told at that time.

According to Puljujärvi, he can get a new medal, but the attacker also hoped that he would get his original medal back. Rantala sends a message to the thief.

“Jesse clearly misses his own. If the thief doesn’t dare to return it to Jesse directly, it can be brought to the Sports Museum, and we can pass it on to him,” says Rantala.