Going for the… Gold?

What happened to the gold in Olympic gold metals?

For hundreds of events, the 2024 Olympics handed out thousands of medals.  The Paris Mint made more than 5,000 medals, 2,600 for the Olympics and 2,400 for the Paralympics. 

When the modern Olympics began in 1896, the official US gold price was $20.67 an ounce.  

As the world’s athletes head home from the summer games (officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad from Paris), gold has been trading at over $2,400.  

Gold has increased by 11,666 percent.  Or you could describe it differently, by how much the gold purchasing power of the dollar has fallen.  The answer is that today’s dollar has less than one percent of its 1896 purchasing power.

The Olympic gold medals now contain only 6 grams of gold, less than one-fifth of a troy ounce that serves as the plating for the medal.  Since the Olympic gold medal weighs 529 grams, if it were gold, it would be worth more than $40,800.  But Olympic medals haven’t been pure gold since 1912.

This year’s medals are the design of French jeweler Chaumet.  The design includes an element of radiance, fine lines projected at regular intervals around the center to add a 3D effect and sparkle to a medal.  

At the center of each medal this year – gold, silver, and bronze – is a small insert of iron from the original iron of the Eiffel Tower, meant to remind the athletes of Paris and France.  

The silver medal weighs 525 grams with 507 grams of silver content.   Its value based on recent silver spot prices is approximately $450.

The bronze medal weighs 455 grams and consists of 415.15 grams of copper, 21.85 grams of zinc and 18 grams of iron. Its podium value is approximately $13.

Our congratulations to all the winners and participants.  And remember that the top prize is gold for a reason!