Wowza! Designs for the 2024 Olympic Games medals have been revealed! As precious metal enthusiasts, the Garfield team was excited to see what Paris 2024 came up with, and we think that this summer’s Olympic medals may be some of the best yet. The design is symbolic and unique, and, by incorporating recycled materials, is consistent with current trends in gold and silver jewelry.
What’s more, this year’s Olympic champions will take home a piece of Paris itself, as each medal will include 18 grams of iron from the Eiffel Tower!
Where’s that metal coming from? Glad you asked. Since its original construction in 1889, the Eiffel Tower has undergone several renovations, and some of the original metallic elements have been removed and preserved along the way. The Paris 2024 Design team decided to repurpose this preserved material for the 2024 Olympic medals, each of which contains a piece of wrought-iron from the iconic monument. Talk about a great use of scrap metal!
A Cultural Tribute
Producing these medals must have been no small undertaking, but luxury Parisian jeweler Chaumet, world-renowned for their impressive creations, rose to the challenge.
Each medal is embellished with a piece of Eiffel Tower iron in the shape of a hexagon. The hexagon is said to represent France, which has been nicknamed “L’Hexagone” because of the country’s roughly six-sided outline.
This isn’t the first time that Olympic Games medals have used unique elements in tribute to the host country’s culture. The medals for the Beijing 2008 Games were decorated with a jade disk, inspired by “bi”, China’s ancient jade piece inscribed with a dragon pattern, said to symbolize nobility and virtue.
All things considered, though, Paris 2024 seems to be the first case in which the medals will include pieces of a historic monument, which is pretty remarkable.
Sustainability
This also is not the first time the Olympics have used recycled materials for their medals. As recently as 2020, the Tokyo 2020 Medal Project launched a nationwide recycling initiative. The project ensured that each medal was formed entirely out of recycled electronics, which often contain gold and silver. Ambitiously they collected a total of 78,985 tons of discarded devices, which were then melted and re-used! Who knew precious metal refining could be so fun?
Similarly, at the Rio 2016 Games, an estimated 30 percent of the silver and bronze medals were made from recycled materials. The U.S. Olympic Committee better call us at Garfield Refining when we host the summer games in 2028! Who wouldn’t want a medal made from recycled dental gold?!
Estimated Value
Wondering how much the Paris 2024 medals may be worth? Same here – we looked into the value of the medals in terms of the precious metal content. Here’s what we found:
The gold medal, weighing 529 grams total with 18 grams of Eiffel Tower iron, has approximately 505 grams of silver and 6 grams of gold. This would put the metallic value at about $755.*
The silver medal weighs 525 grams. It has 18 grams of iron and roughly 507 grams of silver, which is worth about $371.*
Precious metal aside, a handful of other factors come into play. The year that a medal was created and the athlete who won it will both significantly affect the resale value.
In general, gold medals can sell from anywhere between $20k and $50k. Silver medals can sell within $10-$30k range, and bronze less than $10k.
However, medals won by well-known athletes will often sell for much more. It is estimated that medals won by Michael Phelps could sell for at least $100k each. In 2013, one of Jesse Owens’ gold medals from the 1936 Games in Berlin was sold for $1.46 million!
Medals with a Purpose
All in all, the Paris 2024 medals are special in many ways. We love the concept behind the design because it aligns with what we do here every day at Garfield Refining – repurposing precious metal that is no longer deemed useful in its current form and refining so that it can be recycled into something new. And while the metal that comes out of our refinery may not go on to be the next Olympic medals (it should be), we’re happy to keep it out of landfills and give our customers the best return they can get for it.
We hope you learned something new and interesting in this post. If you have any questions about refining or how to cash in on any precious metals that you may have, give us a call!
P.S. – if you enjoyed this post, you might also like Why Do Olympic Athletes Bite Their Medals? or Are Olympic Gold Medals Made of Real Gold?
Consider getting cash for gold, silver, or platinum and selling your precious scrap metal now by downloading a free shipping label here.
Established in 1892, Garfield will get you the most for your gold, silver, platinum, and palladium, and we offer the industry’s best customer service. Call us today at 800-523-0968 to find out why Garfield is a premier precious metals refinery!
*Rough estimation based on Garfield’s daily spot price at time of publishing.