Olympic values are priceless, or depending on who you ask, valueless relative to the idea they represent.
That is, unless you sell them. Then they’re worth several thousands of dollars.
But what if, in a totally-unhinged moment, rather than selling a medal whole, you melted it down to its component parts and sold it for scrap?
WHAT MAKES A MEDAL
In spite of the name, an Olympic gold medal is required to be made from at least 92.5% silver and must contain a minimum of 6 grams of gold. All Olympic medals must be at least 60mm in diameter and 3mm thick.
Minting the medals is the responsibility of the Olympic hosts, and since 1972, each Summer Olympic Games has a unique design to their medals.
TOKYO 2020 MEDAL SPECS
While many different medals have been used to make up Olympic medals in the past, iron appears to be a new addition to the list.
The Paris 2024 Olympic medals will include 18 grams of wrought iron in their center. The iron is taken from pieces of the Eiffel Tower that were removed and preserved during renovations.
The iron is cut into a hexagon and polished and surrounded by more metal representing the placement of the athlete.
The medals were designed by Chaumet, a luxury jewelry and watch maker based in Paris.
- 5,084 medals produced
- 85mm in diameter
- 9.2mm thick
- 18g of iron from the Eiffel Tower
- 529g: the weight of the gold medal
- 525g: the weight of the silver medal
- 455g: the weight of the bronze medal
- The Sport, discipline and event are written on the edge of the medals in French, the official language of the IOC.
The medals are an identical diameter to the medals from Tokyo; unlike the Tokyo medals, the Paris medals have a consistent 9.2mm thickness throughout. The Tokyo medals were 7.7mm in their thinnest part and 12.1mm in their thickest part.
The Paris gold and silver medals will be slightly lighter than in Tokyo, while the bronze medal will be heavier.
Gold Medal
- Weight: 529 grams
- Composition: 6 grams of gold plated on pure silver around wrought iron center
- Value:
- 6 grams of gold @$77.20 = $463.20
- 505 grams of pure silver @$0.94 = $474.40
- 18 grams of wrought iron = negligible
- Total Commoditized Value = $937.60
- Tokyo 2020 Value: $790.34 (+$147.26/18.6%)
Silver Medal
- Weight: 525 grams
- Composition: Pure silver around a wrought iron center
- Value:
- 507 grams of pure silver @$0.94 = $476.58
- 18 grams of wrought iron = negligible
- Total Commoditized Value = $476.58
- Tokyo 2020 Value: $440 (+$36.58/8.3%)
Bronze Medal
- Weight: 455 grams
- Composition: “Redd Brass” (95% copper/5% zinc)
- Value:
- 415.15 grams copper @$0.0092 = $3.85
- 21.85 grams zinc @$0.0027 = $0.06
- 18 grams of wrought iron = negligible
- Total Commoditized Value = $3.91
- Tokyo 2020 Value: $4.04 (-$0.13/-3.2%)
For the second-straight Games, the silver medals are made of pure silver. In Rio, they were made of 93% silver and 7% copper, making a significant difference in the price of the medal involved.
LVMH and @Paris2024 are proud to unveil the medals for the Olympic and Paralympic Games Paris 2024, designed by Maison @Chaumet. Conceived by the Chaumet design studio, these medals express the shared vocation of LVMH and the renowned Paris jeweler: The Art of Crafting Dreams.… pic.twitter.com/k6uK8CyNrc
— LVMH (@LVMH) February 9, 2024
Those medals are Fugly!
I think swimswam might be a little excited for the Olympics to start and are just churning out random articles to pass the time.
Swimming has gotten so acoustic lately where anything even a little bit fun gets weird comments like this.
Interesting article. By the time you arranged to have your medal melted down, the different metals separated, and got the bid side (not the offered side) from a precious metals dealer, it’s doubtful you’d clear the intrinsic value. And, as you point out, you’d have to be unhinged to do this in the first place.
TWO QUESTIONS:
-1- What is the IRON supposed to SYMBOLIZE (according to the designers or the organizers)?
-2- What does the REVERSE of the medal look like?
L’Hexagone (the haxagon) is a nickname for France, because of the shape of the country. So I imagine it’s a reference to that.
The reverse is Nike emerging from the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens. The Acropolis is in the background on the one side and the Eiffel tower on the other side.
In between Nike’s wings are the Olympic rings.
Thanks for asking about Iron.
These four metals- Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Iron- are written about by Daniel in the Bible:
Daniel 2:45 Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.
The hexagon represents the number 6. When you see the three medals on the podium at the medal ceremony, it represents the number 666:
Revelation 13:18: Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the… Read more »
It must be wonderful to have enough free time in the day to come with this 😀
I really want to know what are you smoking. Must be good stuff