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2010 Commonwealth Games medals

Started by Figleaf, October 17, 2010, 12:58:37 PM

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Figleaf

Winners take it all, Kolkata made it all
Jayanta Gupta, TNN, Oct 16, 2010

KOLKATA: Medalwinners at the just concluded Commonwealth Games took away a bit of Kolkata with them. Many of them, particularly those from abroad, may have never visited India's first capital under British rule but the medals they carried back were minted at the India Government Mint in Alipore.

"The establishment in Kolkata regularly mints medals like the Bharat Ratna and Param Vir Chakra apart from commemorative coins," said a senior official of the Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India Ltd ( SPMCIL). "It was certainly an honour to be awarded the contract for the Commonwealth Games 2010 medals. A commemorative coin for the occasion has also been minted in Kolkata."

The Organizing Committee had ordered 1,408 medals, including multiple medals for team events. The total cost of these medals, including boxes and lanyards, came to

`81,08,566. Tombac Bronze an alloy of 92% copper, 6% zinc and 2% nickel was used as the base metal owing to its property to flow under compressive force and allow the formation of sharp and firm features in design. Sources said the cost of each gold medal was `5,539. Each silver medal cost `4,818 and every bronze one `4,529.

"The final design was intricate. The image and look department of CWG 2010 had shortlisted four designs. The mint took up final designing, development and manufacture. The medal had a rising upward spiral that started taking shape from the plain textured base. This signature element's starting fin is raised by 1 mm, increasing to 3 mm in the last fin. The spirals signify the rise of a sportsperson from a period of struggle to the moment of ultimate glory," an official said.

The India Government Mint in Alipore, which manufactured all the Commonwealth Games medals, said the metals' design had won fulsome praise.

"Every medal underwent careful checks before being cleared for supply to the Organizing Committee. Till now, we have not received any complaint. A number of participants from abroad have actually applauded the design and finish of the medals that were 6 mm thick and had a diameter of 63.5 mm," an official of the mint said.

The minting process was quite complex, sources said. CNC engraving machines were used for the first process. Due to high projection, the life of each die was very short. This entailed the use of a large number of dies for the entire manufacturing process. A process of frosting' was used to give the medal bases a matte finish.

The surface of the letters and design had to be polished for a glossy finish. It took nearly a month to finish the sample medals and receive clearance.

"Each medal required manual finishing to give it the final touch. By now, Alipore Mint has become an expert in manufacturing such medals in bulk. CWG Delhi 2010 was another feather in the cap for this 58-year-old institution in Kolkata," the official said.

Source: Times of India
An unidentified coin is a piece of metal. An identified coin is a piece of history.

Bimat

List of medals produced by Kolkata mint is here:

http://www.igmint.org/prod.htm

And some (small sized) photos of medals are here:

http://www.igmint.org/photomd.htm

Aditya
It is our choices...that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities. -J. K. Rowling.

Bimat

Quote
The total cost of these medals, including boxes and lanyards, came to 81,08,566
That's strange! We spent 75,000 Crore INR (1 crore=10 million rupees) on the games,so spending only 8 million rupees on medals is shocking ;D Another thing to be noted is that earlier games which were held in Melbourne/Manchester had a total expenses of about 3000 crore INR!

Aditya
It is our choices...that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities. -J. K. Rowling.

Abhay

It was really sad that no commemorative commonwealth medals were minted for the collectors. I have seen that many times, the mints produce limited number of medals, of a lower quality (Replica), for the collectors also.

Here is such a medal set from 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Abhay
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