While watching Medals Ceremonies at the Olympic Games I came to wonder what metals actually go into the Gold, Silver, and Bronze that honor the world's greatest athletes.

2008 Beijing Medals

I found my answer at the website of The Mineral Council of Australia.

According to the Mineral Council it's required that each Gold and Silver Medal contains at least 92.5% pure silver. From there a minimum of 6 grams (.211 ounce)of 24k gold is used to coat the top prize. The Bronze medal can be any grade of bronze (an alloy of copper, zinc, and tin).

© AP

We all know that the real value of these medals can't be expressed in dollars and cents, but we can break down the raw materials into their current values. By my calculations the silver that goes into the medals would cost $117.00 at today's price of $14.64/oz. Win the Gold and you've added $151.00 of 24k gold plating for a total of $268.00. The Bronze, weighing just under a half a pound, would get you about $5.00 at a raw material price.

Of course these are just raw material prices. In no way does this reflect the true value of the results of a lifetime of effort and achievement, or as the true work of arts that they are.

BTW: Congratulations to Nastia on bringing home the Gold!!!

The prices of commodity and precious metals fell drastically Tuesday (August 12, 2008) with Gold, Platinum, Silver, and Zinc hitting 2008 lows.

Aluminum and Copper continued their slides, and Nickel continued to hover around $8.00 per pound.