THE gold medals that will be awarded in London this year will be the biggest and heaviest handed out at any summer Olympics. At 400 grams (14 ounces) they will be 17 times heavier than at the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm. On the other hand, the 1912 games were the last one where gold medals were made entirely of gold. Now they consist mainly of silver with a thin coat of gold—6 grams is the minimum requirement. The London medal will have a gold content of only about 1.5%， and at current prices will be worth $706. Calculations by The Economist find that this is much more than the "podium value" of any previous gold medal (based on estimates of the composition of medals and bullion prices at the time, adjusted for inflation). This is partly because gold and silver prices are now historically high and partly because this year's medal is so much heavier, even though the extra weight is silver rather than gold. For the first time, the silver in this year's "gold" medal is actually worth more than its gold content. Moreover, if the metal content of earlier medals is valued at today’s bullion prices, the London gold is worth only just over half of those handed out in 1912.

2012年倫敦奧運(yùn)會(huì)上所頒發(fā)的金牌將會(huì)是史上最大也是最重的金牌。每塊金牌重400克(14盎司)，其重量為1912年斯德哥爾摩奧運(yùn)會(huì)金牌的17倍。不過，1912年奧運(yùn)會(huì)是最后一屆采用純金打造金牌的奧運(yùn)會(huì)。現(xiàn)在的金牌主要成分是銀，只在表面鍍一層不少于6克重的純金。本屆倫敦奧運(yùn)會(huì)的金牌含金量?jī)H為1.5%，折合現(xiàn)在的金價(jià)約為706美元(約合人民幣4250元)。根據(jù)《經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)人》雜志的計(jì)算，倫敦奧運(yùn)金牌的價(jià)值將超過以往任何一屆的金牌價(jià)值(根據(jù)當(dāng)時(shí)的金牌成分和價(jià)值估算，并考慮了通貨膨脹的因素)，因?yàn)楝F(xiàn)在的金銀價(jià)格都達(dá)到了歷史最高點(diǎn)，即使多出來的重量是白銀而不是更貴的黃金。本屆倫敦奧運(yùn)會(huì)金牌中的白銀價(jià)值首次超過了其中黃金的價(jià)值，而且如果把之前金牌含金量的價(jià)值按照現(xiàn)在的牌價(jià)計(jì)算的話，倫敦奧運(yùn)會(huì)金牌的價(jià)值僅比1912年奧運(yùn)會(huì)的一半多一點(diǎn)而已。