So you won your Olympic event and were rewarded with a Gold Medal. Wow, you think, look at all that gold...must be worth a fortune. Afterall, gold sells for about $1,350 an ounce and this thing is really heavy, 500 grams to be precise. Well, I hate to break it to you, but a gold medal is really silver-98.8% silver that is. It is Gold PLATED.
The other 1.2% is pure Gold, so it probably has a scrap value of about $400.The last time the medals were actually all gold was the 1912 Olympics. Since the medal is about 16 ounces, it would cost approximately $21,600 to create before labor. That is a bit prohibitive. But it has to be a little disappointing to learn this. To put this in perspective, 14kt gold is .585% gold with alloys making up the rest. 18kt is 75% pure gold and 22 kt is 90% pure. 24kt is 100% pure gold.
A silver medal contains 100% silver and a bronze medal is 95% copper and 5% zinc.
We have learned that athletes do receive monetary rewards from their countries. The US for examoe gives $25,00 for a gold, $15,00 for a silver and $10,000 for a bronze. Italy is known to give upwards of $160,000 for a gold....Michael Phelps would be a multi-millionaire if he was Italian!
So, by all means go for the Gold....and accept the Silver.
