THE 2012 LONDON OLYMPICS MEDALS

On an anonymous industrial estate on the edge of the south Wales Valley, Olympic dreams are being made.

For centuries the Royal Mint has made coins and military medals.

Now the first of the 4700 Olympic and Paralympic medals are slowly leaving the presses in Llantrisant near Cardiff.

Each medal takes 10 hours to make and will be stored in a secret strong-room deep inside the Mint before being taken to London for the games next year.

The process of creating a piece of sporting history is slow and painstaking.

After each five strikes they are rolled through a furnace heated to a blistering temperature of 750 degrees celcius (1,382 degrees Fahrenheit).

This softens the metal and allows the next stage of striking the design to take place.

Each medal is struck 15 times at 900 tonnes. It takes 10 hours to make each one.

When the medals are finished, they are taken to a special strong room.

It is such a secret and secure location that only a handful of staff members know its location.

The medals will remain there until it is time to take them to London, when they are officially handed over the the London Organising Committee of the 2012 games.

"On the front of the Olympic medal is Nike, the goddess of victory, with the ancient stadium that was rebuilt for the first modern Olympic games.

"On the other side is the London 2012 logo with the River Thames running through the back of it.

"The Paralympic one is different. On the outside of the medal we have braille.

"There's a depiction of the wings of Nike, so this is about transcendency and on the reverse we've got an area taken from the original sculpture of Nike which is just above her heart, so this side's about the heart of the Paralympic Games."

To read the complete article, see: London 2012: Olympic medals go into production in Wales (www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-15478810)

Wayne Homren, Editor

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