President Donald Trump appears to have shared an image of the wrong Nobel Prize in a Twitter video Monday ostensibly touting his achievements as a peacemaker.
The minute-long video at one point says "Trump stands for peace" and then shows the president with the prime minister of Israel and ambassadors from the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. A Nobel Prize medal is superimposed on the video.
Trump has been criticized for the video, as he has not won a peace prize despite sometimes arguing he should. But it now appears the medal in question isn't the one awarded to peace prize winners.
John Kraljevich is a South Carolina Democrat who identifies himself on Twitter as a historian and numismatist—a collector of coins and medals. He seems to be one of the first people to notice the president's error.
"Professional medal guy here I've actually catalogued/authenticated a Nobel Peace Prize before (it brought over a million bucks at auction)," Kraljevich said
"That's not even a Nobel Peace Prize. The medal depicted is awarded for physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, and literature."
Professional medal guy here. I’ve actually catalogued/authenticated a Nobel Peace Prize before (it brought over a million bucks at auction).
— John Kraljevich (@JohnSpiroSpero) December 29, 2020
That’s not even a Nobel Peace Prize. The medal depicted is awarded for physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, and literature.
Idiot. https://t.co/hcQMbkypGG
Kraljevich shared an image of the Nobel Peace Prize, which has a different design to the prizes awarded for the sciences. He further provided a link to a peace prize being sold at auction, which featured large photographs of the medal.
The website for the Nobel Prize also confirms that the peace prize has a unique design and that it was, in fact, designed by a different person to the other prizes. The prize for economics is also different.
The website notes that "laureates since 1901 have received Nobel Prize medals created based on the original designs by Erik Lindberg.
As Erik Lindberg was responsible for designing the 'Swedish' Nobel medals, the Norwegian sculptor Gustav Vigeland was entrusted to design the Norwegian Peace medal in 1901.
"However, as Gustav Vigeland was a sculptor and not a medal engraver, Erik Lindberg made the dies for the Peace medal based on Vigeland's designs. Their designs are used still today."
The last U.S. president to win the Nobel Peace Prize was Barack Obama in 2009. Photographs of Obama giving his acceptance speech clearly show him with the unique peace prize medal, not the one featured in Trump's video. In 2020, Trump was nominated for the peace prize but it ultimately went to the World Food Program.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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Darragh Roche is a U.S. News Reporter based in Limerick, Ireland. His focus is reporting on U.S. politics. He has ... Read more
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