Gold medal

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This article is about gold medals as awards or prizes. There is also an article on Gold Medal, an album by The Donnas.

A gold medal generally represents the highest metal awarded for achievement in a non-military field, with no restriction on eligibility. The concept comes from the military, initially with a simple recognition of military rank, and later decorations for admission to military orders dating back to medieval times.

Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have been awarded in the arts (for example by the Royal Danish Academy), usually as a symbol of an award to give an outstanding student some financial freedom. Others offer only the prestige of the award. Many organizations now award gold medals either annually or extraordinarily, including UNESCO and various academic societies.

Most gold medals (including the Olympic medals) are gold-plated. Notable exceptions, made of solid gold, are the Lorentz Medal, the United States Congressional Gold Medal (which is shown to the right), and the Nobel Prize medal.

[edit] Olympic Games

The term refers to a winner's prize at the modern Olympic Games because medals were not awarded at the ancient games. In 1896, winners received a silver medal; the second place received a bronze medal, the third none at all. In 1900, most winners received cups or trophies instead of medals.

The custom of the sequence of gold-silver-bronze for the first three places dates from the 1904 games and has been adopted by many other sporting events. Minting of the medals is the responsibility of the host city. From 1928-1968 the design always was the same: the obverse showed a generic design by Florentine artist Giuseppe Cassioli with text giving the host city; the reverse showed another generic design of an Olympic champion.

From 1972-2000, Cassioli's design (or a slight reworking) remained on the obverse with a custom design by the host city on the reverse. Noting that Cassioli's design showed a Roman amphitheater for what originally, were Greek games, a new obverse design was commissioned for the Athens 2004 Games. Winter Olympics medals have been of more varied design. The silver and bronze medals have always borne the same designs.

[edit] Other gold metal awards

The award of the gold medal (often coupled with a silver and a bronze medal) has been adopted in many competitive fields, from athetics to music and writing. Typically bronze medals are awarded only to third place, but in some contests, such as International barbershop music contests, bronze medals are awarded for third, fourth, and fifth place.