Olympic gold medals are value greater than ever at this yr’s Paris Games, with the raw materials used to make them potentially fetching around $900 each.
The medals contain six grams of gold, the value of which rose to a record high in mid-July due to purchases by central banks, interest from retailers in China and expectations of an easing of US monetary policy. Prices for silver, which accounts for 92.5 percent of the load of the gold medals, are also significantly higher this yr.
Even adjusted for inflation, the worth of the medals continues to be higher than ever before. The Olympic participants profit each from the sharp rise in gold prices and from the increasingly useful medals.
In practice, Olympians don’t are inclined to melt down or sell their medals, which this yr include a small piece of the Eiffel Tower. More lucrative are the gifts countries give to winning athletes, including money, exemptions from military service and cows. Carlos Yulo – who was awarded last week because the Philippines’ first male gold medalist – will enjoy a completely furnished condominium and a lifetime of free colonoscopies.
Medals sold may be value excess of their metal value. One of Jesse Owens’ gold medals from Berlin in 1936 – when he rebuked Adolf Hitler’s try to show Aryan racial superiority – fetched nearly $1.5 million at auction in 2013.
