The 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics gold medal’s “podium value” clocks in at approximately $566, a 20% decline from the record $708 value for the gold medals presented at the London 2012 Summer Olympics.
Why the price decline? Are the Russians skimping? Not so fast. It actually has to do with the drop in gold and silver prices over the past two years, from its record highs of 2012.
The Sochi gold medal weighs 531 grams with a thickness of 10 mm, and a diameter of 100 mm, making it one of the largest gold medals in the history of the games (the 2006 Turin Olympics medals were 107 mm in diameter and weighed 469 grams). If the gold medal was made of solid gold its value would be approximately $21,478 (reason why the last time pure gold medals were presented was in 1912).
The Olympic gold medals contain 525 grams of silver with a 960 hallmark (beyond the 925 hallmark that International Olympics Committee stipulates) and 6 grams of gold with a 999 hallmark (also a gold medal requirement). A hallmark is a kind of purity standard for precious metals.
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