An Olympic gold medal is mostly silver and is worth about $900

The medals contain six grams of gold, the price of which rose to a record high in mid-July due to purchases by central banks, retail interest in China and expectations of an easing of US monetary policy. Prices are also substantially higher this year for silver, which makes up at least 92.5% of the weight of gold medals.

Even after adjusting for inflation, the value of medals is still the highest ever, with Olympians benefiting from both the spike in bullion prices and ever-bigger medals.

In practice, Olympians don’t tend to melt down or sell their medals, which this year also include a small piece of the Eiffel Tower. More lucrative are the gifts countries give to winning athletes, which include cash, exemptions from military service and cows. Carlos Yulo — who became the Philippines’ first male gold medalist last week — will enjoy a fully furnished apartment and a lifetime of free colonoscopies.

Medals that are sold can be worth much more than their metal value. One of Jesse Owens’ gold medals from Berlin 1936 — when he rebuked Adolf Hitler’s attempt to demonstrate Aryan racial supremacy — fetched nearly $1.5 million at auction in 2013.