How Precious Are Those Olympic Gold Medals?

To the athletes, they are priceless, but when compared to other jewelry designs, you actually can figure out how much they’re worth in dollars. Each metal is made in a specific fashion that can include several metals. By analyzing the corresponding weights and metals, one can easily put a price tag on each of these Olympic beauties, just like you would figure out how much a piece of expensive jewelry might be worth based on its weight in gold or platinum.

The Gold

With gold at a spot price of over $1,000 per ounce, you’d think that the gold medal would be equally as pricey. However, the gold medal really only has 6 grams of gold over all. It is composed mostly of 550 grams of silver, which is subsequently covered in gold. The price tag is approximately $494.

The Silver

The silver medal is mostly silver, holding 509 grams of silver in all. Included in that mix is 41 grams of copper too. The price tag for the silver medal is approximately $260.

The Bronze

The bronze medal is a mixture of copper, tin, and zinc. While it is very noteworthy to even get an Olympic bronze medal, the actual dollar value is only a paltry $3.

Prices Can Change

As the value of each metal goes up or down in the open market, so too would the actual dollar value of each medal go up or down. There are some people still hoping for $2,000 an ounce gold, which if it were to happen, would mean the value of the gold medal will double also. With jewelry, you do want to know the type of metal and value of your precious pieces. With Olympic medals, they really are priceless, no matter what the commodity price of gold happens to be that year.