Why is the Olympic gold medal not real gold? - ProProfs Discuss
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Why is the Olympic gold medal not real gold?

Why is the Olympic gold medal not real gold?

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Asked by H.Donna, Last updated: Apr 10, 2024

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A.Jeff

A.Jeff

A.Jeff
A.Jeff

Answered Feb 26, 2018

When seeing an athlete win a gold medal, the medal is impressive and exciting. It looks like it is made of solid gold. Even athletes are known for biting the medal in order to show that it is real. However, gold medals are not entirely made of gold. They appear to look gold, but they are actually mostly silver. Both the silver and gold medals are over 90% of their make-up to be silver. The gold medal is then plated with gold. Less than 10% of the medal is actually gold and only 6 grams of the entire medal is gold.

Historically, the gold medals used to be made entirely of gold. Now, they are not. Based on the amount of the price of gold at the time the medal is sold, the gold medal is actually worth only five hundred dollars.

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