Olympic gold medals are not what they used to be.

Of course, they are priceless for an athlete, because victory requires titanic efforts and self-sacrifice. But, unfortunately, that's really all that distinguishes a medal from a souvenir. The gold medals awarded at the London Olympics are made of 93 percent silver and only 1.34 percent gold. The rest is copper. The value of the medal is only $650. A silver medal (93 percent silver, 7 percent copper) costs about $335 and a bronze medal (mostly copper) costs no more than $5. That means the third-place finisher couldn't even buy himself a cheeseburger. But it is at least comforting to know that the value of a gold medal in this Olympics is higher than in the 2000 games in Sydney. Those gold medals were only worth $80 because they were smaller. The lead in gold medal exchange value is held by the 1982 Olympic Games in Lake Placid, where the gold and silver alloy was worth $1,000.
According to eBau, an online auction service provider, many medalists part with their prize money to supplement their budgets. But there are athletes with a big name, like swimmer Anthony Erwin. He won gold in the 2000 Olympics. Instead of pocketing the money (he sold his medal at auction in 2005), he donated $17,100 to the disaster relief fund.

Based on foreign press for ForTrader.org