Are you curious about what are Olympic gold medals made of? Many people might think that because it’s a gold medal, it’s made of a 100% pure gold composition. However, it is not the case with today’s Olympic games. This guide will help you learn about what are Olympic gold medals made of.
The Olympic Gold, Silver, and Bronze Medals
In the Olympic games, the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd winners of each sport will receive the gold, silver, and bronze medals. Each medal will have a unique design depending on the Olympic event being held. For instance, in the Beijing 2022 Olympic Games, the gold, silver, and bronze medals use the unique design called “Tongxin”, which is a Chinese word that means “together as one”. To make the medal design unique, the design also incorporates various elements from the Chinese philosophy as five rings on the medal. These five rings symbolize the harmony of heaven, earth, and human beings.
Among the gold, silver, and bronze medals in the Olympic games, only the silver medal uses 100% silver to make it. All other medals use the mixture of various metals in their composition, meaning that they are not made of 100% gold for the gold medal or 100% copper for the bronze medal. The 95% copper and 5% zinc are the materials that make the bronze medal.
How Much Gold Is There to Make the Olympic Gold Medals?
Back in the Olympic Games 1912, the 1st winner for each sport will get the gold medal that was made of 100% pure gold. It means there were no mixtures in the gold medal composition back then, as the Olympic games committee uses only gold as its primary material to make their Olympic gold medal.
However, nowadays, the gold medals for the Olympic games no longer made of 100% pure gold. Today, to make the standard Olympic gold medal, it uses only around 6 grams of gold for each gold medal. The rest of the composition uses silver as its primary material to make the gold medal. So, for each gold medal, you will find 92.5% of silver in it, with the 6 grams of gold as the surface plating for the medal.
The Monetary Value for Each Olympic Gold Medal
For the winners in Olympic games, of course the gold medals they receive will be invaluable to them. However, we are trying to talk about the actual monetary value for each Olympic gold medal made for the Olympic games nowadays. With only 6 grams of gold and 92.5% of silver, each Olympic gold medal has an actual monetary value of around $750 when we calculate it based on the current prices of gold and silver.
The current standards in IOC (International Olympic Committee) regulations state that each Olympic gold medal needs to be made of at least 92.5% of silver and plated with at least 6 grams of gold. So, the monetary value for the 6 grams of gold in each Olympic gold medal will be around $350, while the monetary value for the 92.5% of silver metal in each Olympic gold medal will be around $450, giving us the total of around $750 actual monetary value for each gold medal for the Olympic games nowadays.
Interesting Facts about Olympic Gold Medals
There are some interesting facts you might want to know about the Olympic gold medals used in the Olympic games throughout the years. For instance, while the metal composition used to make each Olympic gold medal remains the same, the value for the gold medal itself has been increasing over time because of the increase in gold and silver prices.
The value for the Olympic gold medals in the 2018 Winter Olympics was around $555, whereas the value for the same Olympic gold medals in the Tokyo Summer Olympics was around $820. Here are the other interesting facts about Olympic gold medals you might want to know:
- In the 1912 Olympic Games, the gold medals for the 1st winners had 100% gold composition. The 100% pure gold composition was the standard to make the Olympic gold medal back in the days.
- The size of the gold medals in each Olympic game will differ, with the Winter Olympics having a bigger size than the Summer Olympics.
- Each gold medal has unique designs depending on the host country for the Olympic games. The host country will decide how to make the gold medal for the current Olympic game event.
- The gold medals in the Olympic games will weigh more than the silver and bronze medals.
- Each gold medal has the design philosophy behind it, which again will differ depending on the host country for the Olympic games.
Conclusion
You have learned about what are Olympic gold medal made of. It’s not made of 100% gold composition, although pure 100% gold composition was the standard for the Olympic gold medals in the past. Nowadays, it’s just a gold plating with silver as its base material.
