Friday, August 3, 2012

London Olympics medals worth just 3 pounds!

London Olympic medals are the largest ever in both size and weight, but are actually worth less than three pounds.

According to The Daily Mail, the bronze medals are made up of 97 percent copper, 2.5 percent zinc and 0.5 percent tin, and is therefore only worth about three pounds.

The gold medal consists of just over one percent real gold, the rest is made up of 92.5 percent silver and 6.16 percent copper.

For a silver medal the gold is replaced with more copper, meaning the final product is worth around 210 pounds.

Rules laid down by the International Olympics Committe specify that the medals must contain 550 grams of high-quality silver and six grams of gold.

The 2012 gold medallion is therefore only worth about 410 pounds as raw metal, although the real value would, of course, be much higher if the medals were ever sold. The medals will be awarded in 805 victory ceremonies over the next two weeks.The medals weigh 375-400g and are 85mm across and 7mm thick. Even though Olympic gold medals are not made of 100 percent gold, a medal can still fetch hundreds of thousands of pounds at auction.

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