Gold Medals are made of Silver

[DulwichFox]

It would seem That The Gold Medals Handed out are 92.5% Silver and contain just 6 grms of Gold.

http://chemistry.about.com/od/metalsalloys/f/what_are_olympic_medals_made_of.htm

Fox.

[tommy]

Only 1.34% gold by content, but probably feels like 500% gold if you win one

[KalamityKel]

Who didn't know this?

[Annette Curtain]

KalamityKel Wrote:

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> Who didn't know this?

Fox apparently !

"and the Gold coated medal goes to" doesn't sound quite right, does it

Ner mind

Netts

[DulwichFox]

KalamityKel Wrote:

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> Who didn't know this?

Me... and the BBC Presenters where I first heard this..

I knew that they could not possibly Solid Gold.

More Gold in the Fake Jewelery they sell at dodgy markets.

Fox.

[Sue]

Gold is a very soft metal though, isn't it?

Probably not suitable to make a solid gold medal from, quite apart from the cost :)

That's why it's mixed with other metals to make gold jewellery of various carats, I thought?

[Otta]

You'd have thought that with the money spent on the olympics they could have stretched to a bit more gold!

[DulwichFox]

Gold Medal estimated to be worth ?450.00 (298)

Olympic Torch ?495.00 and there were 8,000 of them.

Fox.

[Sue]

Does it really matter? The winners are hardly likely to take them to the pawn shop or sell them to be melted down, are they? :)

It's the achievement that they symbolise that's important, surely?

[DulwichFox]

Sue Wrote:

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> Does it really matter? The winners are hardly

> likely to take them to the pawn shop or sell them

> to be melted down, are they? :)

>

> It's the achievement that they symbolise that's

> important, surely?

Mark Wells..

You might wonder how an Olympic athlete could part with any gold medal, let alone one attached to such a historic and emotional victory. Wells didn?t part with it lightly: he sold it to help pay for medical treatments related to a rare genetic disease that damaged his spinal cord. He sold the medal to a private collector, who in turn sold it through an auction house for $310,700 in 2010.

He is not alone..

http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/136386

Just Google and you will find many more.

In some poorer countries, Athletes may have no choice.

Fox.

[Sue]

But the money he got was surely nothing to do with the intrinsic value of the gold the medal contained , but surely everything to do with the historic value of the medal .......

[DulwichFox]

Exactly...

A Picasso painting is not really worth $10m..

It is a means of exchanging vast sums of Money.

It becomes Currency without paying direct taxes for having it in your account.

And is safer than leaving your money in a bank.

Fox.