Olympic gold medals are worth more than ever after cost of metals surged
Olympic gold medals are worth more than ever at this year’s Paris games, with the raw materials that go into them having the potential to fetch about $900 each.
The medals contain six grams of gold, the price of which soared to a record in mid-July thanks to central-bank buying, retail interest in China and expectations of easing US monetary policy. Prices are also substantially higher this year for silver, which makes up at least 92.5% of the weight of gold medals.
Even after adjusting for inflation, the value of medals is still the highest ever, with Olympians benefiting from both the sharp rally in bullion prices and increasingly hefty medals.
In practice, Olympians do not tend to melt or sell their medals, which this year also contain a small piece of the Eiffel Tower. More lucrative are the gifts that countries give winning athletes, which include cash, exemptions from military service and cows. Carlos Yulo – who became the Philippines’ first male gold medalist last week – will enjoy a fully furnished condo and a lifetime of free colonoscopies.
Medals that are sold can be worth far more than their metal value. One of Jesse Owens’ gold medals from Berlin 1936 – when he rebuked Adolf Hitler’s attempt to showcase Aryan racial supremacy – fetched almost $1.5-million at auction in 2013.
Comments
Research Reports
Projects
Latest Multimedia
Latest News
Showroom
M and J Mining are leading suppliers of physical support systems as used by the underground mining industry. Our selection of products are not...
VISIT SHOWROOM
The SAIMM started as a learned society in 1894 after the invention of the cyanide process that saved the South African gold mining industry of the...
VISIT SHOWROOM
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation
