Olympic Medals, nice reward for 4700 who will earn one this month

For the next two weeks, the Olympic Medal will be in the news. Probably one of the most visible medals in the world.

I got to see one each of the gold Olympic Medal and the Paralympic Medal which was on loan to the museum hosting the FIDEM International Medals Congress in Glasgow Scotland last month (The art medal show is on view thru September at the University of Glasgow's Hunterian Museum). It features the London Games logo on the national side, with a stadium and Winged Nike on the Olympic side (as dictated by recent traditions.) Sadly the gold content is very very small, as they are lightly plated silver planchets.

The award medals tend to be prized items and very very rare in private (not an award winner's) hands. The most collectible medal is the participation medal, which participants receive. That is a managable collection.

In recent years, the Paralympics are held in the same venues a few weeks after the regular olympics. This year's Paraolympic award medal is of a distinctive design and very nicely done featuring a pattern of feathers.

The US Olympic Training center in Colorado Springs has a display, as well as the International Olympic museum in Switzerland. Often returning winners will have theirs on in a local museum or library display for a while.

They were quite a draw to the exhibition area at the University.

Olympic commemorative coins have been issued since the 1951 Helsinki games, Russia is already issuing coins for their 2014 games.