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2024 PARIS OLYMPIC MEDALS NOT PUREIn the E-Sylum-readers-knew-that-already department, social media is shocked, shocked! that the Olympic gold medals aren't made of pure gold. -Editor 
People have been left disillusioned after finding out the truth about the gold medal. Short of maybe a Nobel Prize, an Olympic gold medal is perhaps one of the most instantly recognised and prestigious awards you can win. Gold is the natural choice for first place, given gold's status as a precious metal. The last few days have seen the news and social media awash with pictures of beaming athletes flushed with pride as they wear the hallowed award around their neck. There are almost as many pictures of them biting down on the gold medals for photo ops. This comes from a crude old fashioned way of testing the purity of a gold coin. As gold is a malleable metal, biting down on it could leave a tooth mark in the surface of the metal, and if it didn't that meant it wasn't pure gold. But if you were to emulate an Olympian and bite down on a gold medal, you might be in for a surprise. That's because Olympic gold medals are not actually pure gold. In fact, they are made up of around 500g of pure silver with 6 grams of gold. People were not impressed, with one person taking to Instagram to share their disbelief: "So basically you get a silver medal even if you win a gold medal. That's effed up man."
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Wayne Homren, Editor The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org. To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor at this address: whomren@gmail.com To subscribe go to: https://my.binhost.com/lists/listinfo/esylum All Rights Reserved. NBS Home Page Contact the NBS webmaster 
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