How does the Nobel Foundation source and certify the recycled gold used for modern medals?
Executive summary
The Nobel Foundation’s modern medals are struck in 18‑carat recycled gold—a change implemented in 1980 and confirmed by the foundation’s own materials—reflecting a move toward using recycled rather than newly mined metal [1]. Public documentation links individual production runs to national mints and to established recycled‑gold and ethical‑sourcing schemes (for example, Fairmined used by the Norwegian Mint in 2015), but the Foundation does not publish a detailed step‑by‑step chain‑of‑custody for every medal, so some sourcing specifics remain internal to the mints and refiners involved [2] [1].
1. What “recycled gold” means for Nobel medals and when it changed
The official Nobel Prize description states that medals awarded since 1980 are made of 18‑carat recycled gold, a standard that replaced earlier medals struck in 23‑carat gold [1]. “Recycled” in industry terms generally denotes gold that has previously been refined—coming from sources like old jewelry, industrial scrap and electronic waste—and then re‑melted and refined to a target purity before alloying to the specified karat, but the Nobel statement itself uses the single phrase “recycled gold” without granular source categories [1] [3].
2. Who actually supplies and certifies the metal
National mints such as the Norwegian Mint have manufactured Nobel medals and in at least one documented instance used Fairmined gold sourced from a cooperative, indicating that mints can and do select certified recycled or ethically sourced lots when contracted [2]. Outside those specific examples, industry certifiers and schemes—Fairmined/Fairtrade, SCS’s Responsible Source, GreenCircle and similar third‑party auditors—are the mechanisms through which refiners and mints obtain traceability and ethical claims for recycled gold, vetting suppliers and the supply chain from refiner to fabricator [4] [3] [5].
3. How recycled gold is refined and checked before manufacture
Refiners and recyclers first collect scrap and e‑waste, remove contaminants and then refine the material—processes that commonly include sampling and assays such as fire assay, atomic absorption or spectrographic analyses to verify purity before alloying to 18 carats [5] [6]. Industry guides note that when gold is refined to a standard (for example 740 parts per thousand or higher) it can carry certification labels, and reputable refiners maintain chain‑of‑custody records and test results to support those claims [5] [6].
4. The Nobel Foundation’s public role versus the mint/refiner’s role
The Nobel Foundation is the legal owner and administrator of the prize system but historically delegates medal production to mints and suppliers; the Foundation’s public descriptions confirm the alloy specification and recycled‑gold policy but do not publish continuous supply‑chain audits in the public domain [1] [7]. That means certification and sourcing verification are typically implemented by the contracted mint or refiner, and any claims about third‑party certified origin (e.g., Fairmined) are traceable to those production partners rather than a standalone Nobel Foundation certification record [2] [4].
5. Historical context and reputational considerations
The Foundation and mints lean on stories of continuity—such as the wartime recovery and recasting of original medals—to reinforce the symbolic and material value of the medals; those anecdotes are well documented and underscore why authenticity and provenance matter to the institution [8] [9] [10]. In contemporary practice, using certified recycled gold helps manage reputational risk around mining‑related harms and aligns the Nobel brand with wider industry moves toward traceability and third‑party certification, but promotional uses of certifications by mints can also serve their commercial and PR interests [2] [3].
6. Limits of available public documentation
Public sources confirm the 18‑carat recycled gold standard and cite examples where certified ethical gold was used by a mint, and they describe how industry certification and assay testing work; however, there is no comprehensive, public, medal‑by‑medal ledger published by the Nobel Foundation naming exact refiners, batch certificates or the complete chain of custody for every medal, so precise provenance beyond the medal specification and occasional mint disclosures cannot be fully verified from available reporting [1] [2] [6] [4].