How much is an Olympic gold medal worth?

While the athletes at the Olympics are concerned with winning them, us economically curious people are actually wondering; 'how much is a gold medal worth'?

Well, you might be disappointed to find out that solid gold medals haven't been around for a while because they stopped making them about 100 years ago, because they cost far too much to make.

Medals first replaced trophies in 1904 and it only took 10 years before manufacturers started mixing materials to bring production costs down.

This year's Rio 2016 are purer than ever, made by the Brazilian Mint, the will weigh 500g mostly of silver. They will only contain six grams of gold!

With the current price of gold this makes the top prize at most Olympic Games only about $600 which may be a little disappointing when you compare that with the potential value of a solid gold medal which would be worth more than $20,000!

Luckily the value of the medals doesn't make the athletes competing any less keen on getting one.

Over the years plenty of countries have competed successfully in the Olympics, taking home a huge medal haul.

So what would happen if you were to consider the price of all of their medals collectively over the years?

Well, Bullion Vault have done just that. Can you believe that over the years the United States have amassed a staggering 977 gold medals, 758 silver medals and 668 bronze medals making a total of 2,403.

If you add this all up that means the US are holding onto a medal total equivalent to $620,588 (£418,201)!

In comparison the Great British team have collected 237 gold medals, 272 silver and 271 bronze added up to $244,147 (£164,595). You can see the full list in an infographic on the Bullion Vault site here.

The design of this year's medals was revealed at a launch event at the Barra Olympic Park in June.

The design is said to celebrate 'the relationship between the strengths of Olympic heroes and the forces of nature'.

The silver and bronze medals have been made using 30% recycled materials and half of the plastic in the ribbons comes from recycled plastic bottles.

According to the official Rio 2016 site a total of 2,488 medals have been produced: 812 gold, 812 silver and 864 bronze.