Download images of the medals in production

Download images of the Olympic medals

Download images of the Paralympic medals

B roll footage available

The Royal Mint has brought together a specially selected team of Royal Mint designers, technicians and craftsmen who have been testing and refining the minting process to ensure every medal produced meets highly exacting specifications.

They will produce around 4,700 medals which will be awarded during the 805 Victory Ceremonies taking place at venues across the UK during the Games.

Taking around ten hours in total to complete, each medal will be struck fifteen times with 900 tonnes of weight on a special press. After each first five strikes the medals are slowly rolled through a 750 degree furnace to soften the metal allowing the designs to be replicated perfectly.

The designs for both the Olympic and Paralympic medals were unveiled earlier this year. The Olympic medals have been designed by British artist David Watkins and the Paralympic medals by practising Jewellery artist and senior lecturer in Jewellery Design at Central Saint Martin’s College of Arts and Design, Lin Cheung.

Paul Deighton, LOCOG CEO, said: ‘It’s great to see businesses across the UK benefiting from the Games and I’m absolutely delighted that the Olympic and Paralympic medals for the Victory Ceremonies are being made in South Wales.’

Adam Lawrence, Royal Mint Chief Executive, said: ‘We are immensely proud and honoured to be able to strike the Olympic and Paralympic medals. More than 800 local people are employed by the Royal Mint, and now each one will be able to tell their children and grandchildren that they - and South Wales -  had a hand in creating a piece of Olympic history.’

The precious ore for the medals is supplied by London 2012 sponsor Rio Tinto and is mined at Rio Tinto’s Kennecott Utah Copper Mine near Salt Lake City in America, as well as from the Oyu Tolgoi project in Mongolia.

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B roll footage is available from the Royal Mint Press Office, please contact Kim Broadbent on Kimberley.broadbent@porternovelli.co.uk or 020 7853 2292

For further information please contact the London 2012 Press Office on +44 (0)203 2012 100 or visit the website at www.london2012.com. Find out the latest from London 2012 HQ on our blog http://blog.london2012.com or follow us on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/london2012

Notes to editors:  

As it heads towards its £2bn budget for staging the Olympic and Paralympic Games, LOCOG has seven domestic Tier One Partners - adidas, BMW, BP, British Airways, BT, EDF and Lloyds TSB. There are seven domestic Tier Two Supporters – Adecco, ArcelorMittal, Cadbury, Cisco, Deloitte, Thomas Cook and UPS. There are now twenty-eight domestic Tier Three Suppliers and Providers – Aggreko, Airwave, Atkins, Boston Consulting Group, CBS Outdoor, Crystal CG, Eurostar, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP, G4S, GSK, Gymnova, Heathrow Airport, Heineken UK, Holiday Inn, John Lewis, McCann Worldgroup, Mondo, NATURE VALLEY, Next, Nielsen, Populous, Rapiscan Systems, Rio Tinto, Technogym, Thames Water, Ticketmaster, Trebor and Westfield.

There is one domestic Tier One Paralympic Games Partner, Sainsbury’s and one domestic Tier Three Paralympic Supplier, Otto Bock.

The Worldwide Olympic Partners signed up for London 2012 are Coca-Cola, Acer, Atos, Dow Chemical Company, GE, McDonald’s, Omega, Panasonic, Procter and Gamble, Samsung and Visa.