Upon wondering how much gold was in an Olympic gold metal, I found the following information. Not too impressive! Good thing there is more “gold” in marketing contracts than in the metal. In either case, congratulations to all athletes who made it to the olympics.
Source: Zerohedge.com
As every Olympic athlete knows, size matters. The London 2012 medals are the largest ever in terms of both weight and diameter – almost double the medals from Beijing. However, just as equally well-known is that quality beats quantity and that is where the current global austerity, coin-clipping, devaluation-fest begins.
The 2012 gold is 92.5 percent silver, 6.16 copper and… 1.34 percent gold, with IOC rules specifying that it must contain 550 grams of high-quality silver and a whopping 6 grams of gold. The resulting medallion is worth about $500. For the silver medal, the gold is replaced with more copper, for a $260 bill of materials. The bronze medal is 97 percent copper, 2.5 percent zinc and 0.5 percent tin. Valued at about $3, you might be able to trade one for a bag of chips in Olympic park if you skip the fish.
