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Gold takes silver in price performance Olympics

Since the Seoul Olympics in 1988, the price of silver has outperformed gold by almost half (47%).  

Since the start of the modern Olympic movement in 1894, athletes have competed for the coveted gold, silver and bronze medals.  The Olympic motto, ‘citius, altius, fortius' (‘faster, higher, stronger'), has meant the target has always been gold.  However, investors may want to think differently.

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Research, by Skipton Building Society, shows that the value of the gold in the medals presented at the Seoul Olympics is now worth £56,673 an increase of 87% over the 20 years that have passed.  However, the price of silver has seen the value of the medals rise by 128%.

At the 1988 Seoul summer games, a total of 1,040 gold and silver medals were awarded to competing athletes and a further 110 to those in demonstration sports.  These medals contained a total of 3.48kg of gold and 73.8 kg of silver (see editors' notes) respectively.   In the 20 years that have passed, the price per ounce of gold has risen from £247.85 to £462.65.  Over the same period, an ounce of silver has more than doubled from £3.83 to £8.75.

Commodity Prices - Gold & Silver Fixings London Prices

Source: LMBA  http://www.lbma.org.uk/statistics_historic.htm

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