The medal at the Olympic Games is a badge of distinction and a long-awaited award for high achievements of an athlete. The gold medal, which is awarded for the first place in the competition, is especially appreciated.
Watching the awarding of champions, viewers often wonder if there is this precious metal in the gold medal at all and, if so, how much. The Olympic gold medal is actually more silver. It is an alloy of silver and 6 g of gold, i.e. gold is just a cover, otherwise the value of the medal would be much higher.
general information
For the first time, medals were used to award athletes in 1896 at the Olympic Games in Athens. Chains and ribbons began to be attached to them in 1960 at the Games in Rome, before that medals were handed directly into the hands.
The Olympic Committee in the host city is responsible for the design and manufacture of Olympic medals each time. At the same time, the basic requirements are met:
- a gold medal is covered with at least 6 g of gold
- the gold (and silver) medal is made from an alloy containing 92.5% silver;
- the medal has a minimum diameter of 60 mm and a minimum width of 3 mm.
As a rule, medals with their own individual shape are made for each Olympic Games, they are also laser engraved.
On average, the gold medal of the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi consists of 6 g of 999 gold and 525 g of 960 silver. There is a little more silver in the Paralympic medal - 680 g.
Medal making process
In a special furnace, silver and bronze are melted and a thick sheet of metal is cast by the method of semi-continuous casting. To prevent air pores from forming in the metal sheet during the casting process, it is rolled on a rolling mill. Further, blanks of medals in the form of square plates are made from it. They are placed in an oven, heated to 180 ° C and held for two hours. Then the medals are slowly cooled.
The cooled down workpiece is sent to a lathe, then to another one, to hone the workpiece and give it the desired "washer" shape. As a result, it ends up in a precision milling machining center, where symbols and patterns are applied to the obverse of the medal using high-speed milling. The machines also carry out the official engraving of the name of the Olympic Games in three languages.
Also, the brand of the manufacturer, the stamp of the state inspection of assay supervision is applied to the medal, a check is carried out for compliance with the 960 sample.
One of the stages in the creation of a medal is to cover it with gold in an electroplating bath.
The final actions of the wizard are done manually. In the end, the medal is ground on a grinding machine and in a polishing machine.
