I dont know if this is a stupid question but are the medals really gold, silver, and bronze? Im guessing yes?

Question

I dont know if this is a stupid question but are the medals really gold, silver, and bronze? Im guessing yes?

Answer 1

It's not a stupid question.

The silver and bornze medals are real metal. As mentioned by others the gold medals are plated. The rules say they have to be plated with at least 6 grams of gold.

BHP BIlliton provided 13.04 kilograms of gold for the medals. BHP Billiton also donated 830 kg of copper and ~1300 kg of silver.

As for people stealing the medals, well people do already try to steal them. Not for the value of the metal. No one is going to melt down an olympic medal to sell the gold. Whose medals and how they won it is FAR more valuable then the metal in the medal.

Answer 2

of course,they are not real.maybe USA can give real medals but i guess this time China will give !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Answer 3

Jesus just do a google search. Here from this link http://www.minerals.org.au/olympics/meda...

How must the Olympic medals be made?

Each Olympic medal must be at least 70mm across and 6mm thick. The gold and silver medals must contain at least 92.5% silver, and at least 6 grams of 24-carat gold must coat each gold medal. Bronze medals contain copper, zinc, tin and a very small amount of silver.

Where did the Gold/Silver/Copper come from for the Beijing Olympics?

The BHP Billiton owned Cannington mine site in North west Queensland, will provide the silver used for the production of the gold and silver medals. BHP Billiton mine sites in Chile will provide the gold to coat the gold medals and the copper for producing the bronze medals.

The Cannington mine also provided the silver for the 2006 Commonwealth Games held in Melbourne and the Sydney Olympics in 2000.

302 gold medals will be made for the Beijing Olympics.

Answer 4

They used to be solid metals, but as the price of gold went up, the medals were plated with the precious metals.

Answer 5

plated

Answer 6

well partly true..the bronze one is actually made of chocolate

Answer 7

they are glod silver and bronze plated

Answer 8

no they are not real. that would be too expensive and people would try to steal them. they are most likely plated

Answer 9

no, they are plated as other have pointed. the Beijing Olympics medals however are inlaid with jade. So that makes them quite a bit more expensive than previous ones.  

Answer 10

Bronze and Silver is solid that but gold is silver with plated gold but this time i think they are making it special and making it solid gold too.

Answer 11

No, not a stupid question, they could just be plated or something.

The truth is, it just refers to the color, not the metallic content. The Gold Medal actually contains less than 6 grams of gold. The medals are mostly silver though (so the silver one is actually silver).