If you were to melt down a medal won at a recent Olympics, a gold medal would be worth around $800, a silver would be worth about $450, and a bronze would be worth around $5. Most Olympic medals cost approximately between $300 to $810 USD in terms of raw material, but they can sell for much more after the games, depending on the winner. Each medal comes with a wood case and features the five Olympic rings, the official name of the games and Nike, the Greek goddess of victory, on them, a requirement of the I.O.C. France - 874 medals. ; Games and Competition Local and international year-round sports training and athletic competitions. Though the design of medals has varied since the 1896 Olympics, for the most part, the design selected for the 1928 Olympics remained for more than 70 years until it was redesigned at the 2004 Olympics in Athens. 29. The minimum diameter is 60 millimeters, and the thickness is a minimum of 3 millimeters. The composition of the Olympic medals is controlled so that the value of modern medals does not vary too much from one set of games to the next. Back in 2021, an International Olympic Committee spokesperson confirmed as much to Newsweek, explaining, The medals for first and second places shall be of silver of at least 9251000 grade; the medal for first place shall be gilded with at least 6g of pure gold.. or do not finish the event are awarded a participation ribbon. Well, yes and no. Apparently, theres about $350 of gold and $400 of silver in each medal, which comes to about $750.64 in total metal value. Well, at a lot less than you may think. But older medals . The proof variety can often be worth a small percentage more than a regular strike. Putting a Price on Winning And, according to the IOC, this specific gold medal weighs approximately 556 grams, meaning that, when the gold plating is removed, there is still approximately 550 grams of silver left. Some Olympic medals contained matter from out of this world. But how much is a gold medal worth? According to the the Olympics website, the design is Chinese ancient jade concentric circle pendants with the outer rings featuring ice, snow, and cloud pattern. .css-4xjy6g{display:block;font-family:RundDisplay,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif;font-weight:bold;letter-spacing:0.01em;margin-bottom:0;margin-top:0;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}@media (any-hover: hover){.css-4xjy6g:hover{color:link-hover;}}@media(max-width: 48rem){.css-4xjy6g{font-size:1.25rem;line-height:1.2;margin-bottom:0.9375rem;margin-top:1.25rem;}}@media(min-width: 40.625rem){.css-4xjy6g{font-size:1.25rem;line-height:1.2;margin-bottom:1.25rem;margin-top:0.9375rem;}}@media(min-width: 64rem){.css-4xjy6g{font-size:1.625rem;line-height:1.2;}}Dua Lipa Is Effortlessly Cool in a Hooded Jumpsuit, Chris Pine Tells All About Harry Styles SpitGate, Madelyn Cline Looks Extra Springy in Gingham, Chrissy Teigen Shares Cute Video of Baby Esti. Yet, some earlier medals are worth much more because they contained more gold. Olympic gold medals haven't been made from solid gold since the 1912 Stockholm Games, yet they remain valuable in terms of their metal content because they are 92.5% silver (sterling silver), plated with at least 6 mm of 24k or solid gold. The medals for first and second places shall be of silver of at least 925-1000 grade; the medal for first place shall be gilded with at least 6g of pure gold, An IOC spokesperson told Newsweek in 2021. How do you find the rational number between 3 and 4? The Tokyo 2021 Olympic gold medal design comprises six or so grams of gold layered over 550 grams of silver, according to the designer. A gold medal won by an unidentified member of the 1984 U.S. basketball team, a roster that included Patrick Ewing and Chris Mullin, sold for $83,188 on July 22, RR Auction said. The gold medal is slightly heavier than the silver medal, while the bronze medal is much lighter. Obviously, this means silver medals are basically just gold medals without the extra gilding. Nabbing a selfie with it gleaming in the background? Unauthorized distribution, transmission or republication strictly prohibited. The U.S. Olympic Committee currently gives winners $37,500 for winning a gold, $22,500 for a silver and $15,000 for a bronze medal; Azerbaijan offered $510,000 to each gold medalist during the 2012 London Olympics. The silver, gold and bronze (L-R) used at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Myth #2: Everyone Gets a Medal At Special Olympics, we award three medals: gold for first place in a division, silver for second, and bronze for third. (Womp, womp.). The first Modern Olympians, in 1896 and 1900, competed for silver and bronze medals. Imagine if the gold medal was actually gold that would be cool! London's were the largest, at between 375 . Each medal, however, must include the following details: the five rings symbol, the Greek goddess of victory Nike in front of the Panathinaikos Stadium in Athens, and the official name of the respective Games (such as Games of the XXXII Olympiad Tokyo 2020), according to the International Olympic Committee. Nary a year goes by without photos circulating of Olympians biting their gold medals. The rest is made up of 92.5 percent silver and 6.16 percent copper - and is only worth about . Sign up to receive the daily top stories from the National Post, a division of Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. But it was a first-place silver medal from the first modern Olympics in Athens in 1896 there were no gold medals then that commanded six figures on the eve of this years Games. That can sound like a lot of money but is nowhere near even a fraction of the amount of time, effort and money the Olympians have invested over their careers to get to this level of competition. Sotherton said she keeps her medals accessible rather than putting them up in a frame. If you are a Home delivery print subscriber, unlimited online access is. Assuming the Beijing Olympics gold medals are as heavy as the Tokyo ones, and keeping those composition rules in mind, there's almost $350 worth of gold and a little over $400 worth of silver in the medal $750.64 worth of precious metals in total. Its a niche collectible, Bobby Livingston, an executive vice president of RR Auction, which brokered the sale of the three medals and 18 others on July 22, said on Sunday. According to CNBC's market watch, "the 6 grams of gold and 550 grams of silver in the Tokyo Olympics' first-place medal are worth $353 and $466." That's $265 more than the 2018 medal that was valued at the time of the PyeongChang Opening Ceremony, even though this year's medal has around 30 grams less silver. The gold medals awarded at the 2012 Summer Olympics were extremely heavy, weighing in at 400 grams each. 2023 BDG Media, Inc. All rights reserved. But, this doesn't take in the significance of the medals themselves - it's likely these numbers will not matter one jot to the proud Olympians who have sealed their place in the history books with their wins! Anyway, before we move on to $$$, a quick note on the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics medal design (because its super fascinating!). The book, which was called an indispensable Olympic resource and pure fun by The New York Times, follows the history of the Olympics, from how it began in a Victorian English town called Much Wenlock to the discontinued sports that are no longer around like tug of war, firefighting, painting and, yes, live pigeon shooting. With a current market value of $0.89 per gram, the silver of this particular medal would cost about $489. According to the International Olympic Committee, gold medals are required to be at least 92.5% silver and are plated with about 6 grams of pure gold. Money noted that Winter Olympic medals tend to be worth less at auction than Summer ones, though it depends on the athlete and occasion. Former British heptathlete Kelly Sotherton, who won a bronze in heptathlon at Athens 2004 and another for the 4 x 400-metre relay at Beijing 2008, saysher medals are a reminder of how her hard work and effort paid off. Good stories also boost value: The most valuable Olympic medal ever sold was track star Jesse Owens' gold medal from the 1936 Olympics in Nazi-occupied Berlin, which went for nearly $1.5 million . You learn something new everyday. RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL - AUGUST 12: Joseph Schooling of Singapore celebrates winning gold in the Men's 100m Butterfly Final on Day 7 of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium on August 12, 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I think it is more the sentiment that counts. Considered purely as jewelry, Phelps's medal isn't worth much: Its gold content is . At last years Tokyo Games, the gold medals, which again were predominantly silver with only about 6 grams of pure gold, were worth about $800 in gold and silver. The 1984 $10 Olympic coin costs $550 to $600, in either uncirculated or proof. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/olympic-gold-medal-amount-worth-608448. Winning Olympic gold is priceless, unless you're from Singapore. Of course, Olympic medals have enormous historical and sentimental value and are therefore priceless, so their actual material worth is kinda irrelevant! The sale price set a record for a piece of Olympic memorabilia, according to SCP Auctions, the Laguna Niguel, Calif., auction house that handled the sale. If you were to melt down a medal won at a recent Olympics, a gold medal would be . At the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, . receive $37,500 for a gold medal, $22,500 for a silver, and $15,000 for a bronze, the most expensive Olympic medal ever sold, sold at auction in 2013 for around $1.46 million, Olympic gold medal from the Athens Games in 2004, gold medals tend to sell for between $20,000 and $50,000. The answer is, obviously, priceless, at least to the person who won them with their sweat and strategy. Athletes have often spent a large proportion of their lives in training for their particular event, and so have a wealth of experience to pass onto younger generations of sportspeople. The 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics medals were the same diameter as the 2012 medals (100 mm), but the value of silver and gold has changed over time. Italy, Russia and France give each of their gold medalists $180,000, $135,000 and $65,000, respectively. To win an Olympic medal, athletes put in hard work, sweat, tears and lots of sacrifice but if they manage to get their hands on a precious medal, how much is it actually worth? 2 million. Standing on an Olympic podium, a shiny medal gleaming in the sun, a national anthem playing in the background: winning an Olympic medal looks, unquestionably, cool as hell. The gold medals from the 1900 Paris games would be worth $2667.36. Sweden - 661 medals. The Games kick off August 5 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. As a collector, you can start with bronze if you dont have a lot of money.. At todays prices that means the gold medal would be worth around A$1087 if you melted it down, while the silver would be worth about $611 and the bronze around $7. Then it's worth $1 million. Priceless. This is because gold is often softer than other metals, so biting down on it was a way to check its authenticity. Get Involved Near You Special Olympics athletes are people who are 8 years old or older and who have an intellectual disability. That means: Gold medals are 1.34% gold, 92.5% silver, and 6.16% copper; Silver medals are 92.5% silver and 7.5% copper; Bronze medals are 97% copper, 2.5% zinc and 0.5% tin. Though the Olympic Games started in ancient Greece, the first Olympic medal wasnt given until the 1896 Olympics in Athens, Greece, where winners were given a silver medal and an olive branch. Released on May 2, 1995, the Special Olympics World Games Silver Dollar commemorates the Special Olympics World Games and recognizes the achievements of participants. are made from 95 percent copper and 5 percent zinc. Medals should weigh between 500 and 800 grams (17.64 to 28.22 ounces). Athletes who are disqualified for sport technical violations (it happens!) The Olympic medals aren't fully made with the same metals that they're named after. The Tokyo 2020 Olympic medals weigh between 450 to 556 grams and contain recycled materials from donated electronic devices. How much do they weigh? Sports Special Olympics supports over 4 million athletes, coaches, and volunteers with 32 Olympic-type sports. Here's a look at how much the Olympic gold medal is worth today. The 1995 $1 Silver Special Olympics Commemorative Coin was designed by James Ferrell and Thomas Rogers. Gold. Logan Martin of Australia kisses his gold medal during the awarding ceremony for Cycling BMX Freestyle men's final at Tokyo 2020 Olympics. A . Access all of our expanded, online-only, subscriber exclusive opinion writing. Often in photos you will see athletes biting their gold medals. There was an error, please provide a valid email address. Free shipping on many items | Browse your favorite brands | affordable prices. The next issue of NP Posted will soon be in your inbox. All three were sold by Boston-based RR Auction. 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