How much is the Olympic gold medal from Winter Olympics 2026 really worth? And how much gold is actually inside it? We break down the real value of the yellow medal.
The gold medals being dished out at the ongoing Winter Olympics 2025 will pay you good money if you try to sell, but they won’t make you a ton of dollars (or rupees in India) despite weighing 500 grams. That’s because the Olympic gold medal is largely a silver medal. The silver medals are also made of silver.
But if you have an Olympic gold medal from the 1904, 1908 or 1912 editions, it would have ideally earned you around 100,000 USD. Why? The gold medals in 1904, 1908 or 1912 were made of solid gold. But they’re now 92.5% silver with 6 grams of gold.
Silver medal is pretending to be gold!
This information varies a bit, with some publications claiming a 500-gram medal is 99% silver with a thin outer layer of gold, or 6 grams of gold plating. But you get the point, right?
An Olympic medal is a big chunk of silver disguised as gold.
Now, let’s see how much it would fetch you in today’s world.
The good news is that a lot more, as compared to last year, gold and silver have seen their prices rise significantly in the last 12 months. Gold prices have gone up by around 74% in last one year, while silver prices have appreciated by 161% in the same period.
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If the gold medal were made of solid gold, it would have cost $81,600 as per the latest trading price of 5,076.06 per ounce. In Indian rupees, that would be around Rs 74 lakh with an exchange rate of 1 USD being Rs 90.
But as the gold medal is 92.5% silver with 6 grams of gold, the real value of an Olympics yellow metal would be around $2,500 (approximatelyRs 2.2 lakh ).
Olympic gold medal 1908: 100% Gold vs 2024: 1% Gold pic.twitter.com/6o9mKDT8vL
— History Defined (@historydefined) January 28, 2026
One, however, must know that athletes could still raise a lot of money by selling their medals. Largely due to the sentimental value and prestige attached to the medals, they go for a lot in auctions.
One of the four gold medals won by American sprinter Jesse Owens in Nazi Germany was sold for $1.47 million in 2013.
American diver Greg Louganis earned $200,000 by auctioning his 1984 Los Angeles gold medal. As is evident, gold medals fetch a lot more money than their real value, even if they are not all gold.
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