How Much Is An Olympic Gold Medal Worth?

How much is an Olympic medal worth?  Working with various forms of precious metal on a daily basis, we were curious about the value of an Olympic gold medal.  After digging around for a while we discovered some interesting facts:

1. The actual value of the materials used to create the gold medal is far less than most people think. The fact is the gold medals are gold-plated medals.

2. The current specifications, established by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), state that the gold medal must be at least 60 mm in diameter, 3 mm thick and contain 6 grams of genuine gold.

3. The metallic value of a gold metal today is only between $600-$700 USD. Sterling silver is at the core of the medal.  Of course, the real value of any Olympic medal is not found in the minerals.  Every now and then, Olympic medals go up for auction and, depending on who won and wore the medals, they could sell for over $300,000 USD.

4. The Olympic games of 1912 had last time solid gold medals (over 100 years ago).  The cost in raw materials to make a solid-gold medal today would be somewhere in the ballpark of $20,000 USD.

The excitement of how vast the influence of metal plating is in yet another industry.

Good luck Team USA!