On Sunday, the San Francisco 49ers will take on the Kansas City Chiefs. The winner will take home the silver!

No... I’m not inferring that the winner will get a second-place prize. I’m referring to the Lombardi Trophy. It's made of silver.

So, what is that thing worth anyway? Not as much as you might think, despite being formed out of a precious metal. Each Lombardi Trophy (there are many out there) is valued at about $10,000, according to The Sporting News, although it costs around $50,000 to produce.

As I mentioned, the trophy is formed out of silver, but it isn’t pure silver like an American Silver Eagle coin. The Lombardi is fabricated out of sterling silver. Sterling is an alloy of silver containing 92.5 percent by weight of silver and 7.5 percent by weight of other metals (alloy), usually copper.

The Lombardi Trophy measures 20.75 inches high and weighs seven pounds. That means given the current price of silver at $22.58 per ounce (73 cents per gram), the metal melt value of the trophy would be around $2,318.

Interestingly, the football on top of the Lombardi trophy is the same size as a regulation NFL football.

As I already mentioned, there are quite a few Lombardies out there . Tiffany & Co. produces a new Super Bowl trophy each year. Also, players and coaches can order their own, smaller replicas.

It takes four months to make the Lombardi Trophy. Workers at Tiffany and Co. fabricate it at a workshop in Cumberland, Rhode Island. Sterling silver must be heated to over 1,000 degrees to mold it into the trophy’s distinctive shape.

Winning a Lombardi would certainly be cool, but if you want to win a more valuable trophy and a lot more silver, you should take up ice hockey.

More Valuable

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

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

Play soccer. 

Most Valuable

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.

Monetary value aside, we can certainly debate which trophy is the greatest in sports. It’s the Stanley Cup. Sure, I may be a tad biased. I’m a hockey player. So? Fight me! But I think we can all agree that trophies made of precious metals are valuable because precious metals are valuable!

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