Paris Olympic Medals Crumble

jeff of pa

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The French luxury giant, LVMH designed the medals handed out at last year's Paris Olympics. Now, athletes are taking to social media to show that the medals are getting covered in rust and disintegrating. Over 100 Olympians have asked for replacement medals. LVMH took all the credit for the medals when they were unveiled, but the conglomerate is distancing itself from this fiasco. It has thrown its partner, a French mint, under the bus.



LOL Next Time :

1737808196550.webp
 

They must have used some type of pot metal. You would think a gold Olympic medal would warrant at least a high grade silver content like Sterling plated with gold. Maybe they used zinc instead and the medals have zinc pest already.
 

The metals mirror the whole event, rotten to the core.
From the opening ceremony to the actual events where men compete against women.

The Olympics should of received the gold metal for the biggest 🤡 event.
 

"To date, more than 100 athletes reported their medals were deteriorating, with bronze medals in particular flaking and rusting. The Monnaie de Paris, which minted the medals, attributed the damage to a varnish defect caused by new European Union regulations, according to the New York Times."
Source: https://www.prdaily.com/the-scoop-olympic-medal-controversy-leaves-lvmh-tarnished/#:~:text=To date, more than 100,to the New York Times.
Don in SoCal
In all my years of dealing with metals I can't recall Bronze rusting.
I'm sorry of being skeptical about this but it seems alot of money was spent on these 🏅 and they produced garbage.
So why all the $$?
Like everything dealing with the Olympics its a huge laundry for $.
 

"To date, more than 100 athletes reported their medals were deteriorating, with bronze medals in particular flaking and rusting. The Monnaie de Paris, which minted the medals, attributed the damage to a varnish defect caused by new European Union regulations, according to the New York Times."
Source: https://www.prdaily.com/the-scoop-olympic-medal-controversy-leaves-lvmh-tarnished/#:~:text=To date, more than 100,to the New York Times.
Don in SoCal
If they are blaming it on a "Varnish" defect, COULD it be that that "varnish was meant to hide the inferior product itself? Are the Medals not say Bronze, Silver & Gold?, but are instead Zinc, Zinc & Zinc? As UnderMiner said, they could have at least been a High grade Silver with a quality electroplate. Glad now I decided not to compete. (Senior Division of course). Just saying...
 

They must have used some type of pot metal. You would think a gold Olympic medal would warrant at least a high grade silver content like Sterling plated with gold. Maybe they used zinc instead and the medals have zinc pest already.

In all my years of dealing with metals I can't recall Bronze rusting.
I'm sorry of being skeptical about this but it seems alot of money was spent on these 🏅 and they produced garbage.
So why all the $$?
Like everything dealing with the Olympics its a huge laundry for $.

The issue is real and relates to the bronze medals, which are an alloy of copper, tin and zinc, with an inset hexagonal piece of iron reclaimed from refurbishment work on the Eiffel Tower. It was known from the outset that this would make them vulnerable to moisture, including sweat, and it was planned to use a chromium trioxide based ‘varnish’ for protection. This had been successfully used in the past but there was a last-minute regulatory change arising from an EU Directive which prohibited the use of chromium trioxide in relation to concerns about toxicity.

The Paris Mint could well have predicted the forthcoming ban but was caught with its pantalons down and hurriedly switched to a new type of varnish which had been inadequately tested. The new varnish allows ingress of moisture and creates a corroded ‘crocodile skin’ pattern on the surface of the medal itself which then causes the varnish to begin flaking off and worsening the problem.

It’s not the first time that the Paris Mint has produced defective workmanship relating to its varnishing processes. In 2023 the Chinese multinational Huawei returned a batch of 12,000 medals to the mint. They had been intended for distribution to Huawei’s top employees but the first recipients soon began to notice cracks appearing below the varnish.
 

I'm guessing the coating was so thin, handling and rubbing them, while showing them off,
is wiping the color off .

they most likely thought they would put them in a case and never know
 

Last edited:
The issue is real and relates to the bronze medals, which are an alloy of copper, tin and zinc, with an inset hexagonal piece of iron reclaimed from refurbishment work on the Eiffel Tower. It was known from the outset that this would make them vulnerable to moisture, including sweat, and it was planned to use a chromium trioxide based ‘varnish’ for protection. This had been successfully used in the past but there was a last-minute regulatory change arising from an EU Directive which prohibited the use of chromium trioxide in relation to concerns about toxicity.

The Paris Mint could well have predicted the forthcoming ban but was caught with its pantalons down and hurriedly switched to a new type of varnish which had been inadequately tested. The new varnish allows ingress of moisture and creates a corroded ‘crocodile skin’ pattern on the surface of the medal itself which then causes the varnish to begin flaking off and worsening the problem.

It’s not the first time that the Paris Mint has produced defective workmanship relating to its varnishing processes. In 2023 the Chinese multinational Huawei returned a batch of 12,000 medals to the mint. They had been intended for distribution to Huawei’s top employees but the first recipients soon began to notice cracks appearing below the varnish.
Oh how special getting some scrap from the tower.
I'll be back after I throw my cookies.
 

Perhaps future medals should have a tag reading "Made in America"? .... (or made in England, IF overseen by "Red-Coat)
 

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