
Medal design coordinator Renato Romozzi displays a Paralympic gold at the Royal Canadian Mint pavilion.
The Royal Canadian Mint pavilion was one of the runaway favorites at the Olympic Games. The big draw wasn’t loonies, toonies or quarters but bonafied Olympic bling. Eager for a chance to see and feel real Olympic gold, silver and bronze medals, more than 110,000 people passed through the pavilion during the Games.
In part because of that extraordinary success, the Mint has decided to stick around for the Paralympics, in a new home at the Vancouver Public Library’s central branch. I stopped by today to discover that the pavilion’s rock star status has hardly diminished. A line-up of people stretched through the library atrium, out the door and around the perimeter of the building, stopping near a sign that announced a 2 1/2 hour wait to get inside.

During the Paralympics, the Mint pavilion is inside the Vancouver Public Library's central branch.
And the appeal is obvious. Safeguarded inside the pavilion is a small fortune in gold and silver. You can touch the same medals that hang around the necks of Jon Montgomery, Christine Nesbitt and all the rest of Canada’s newly minted Olympic heroes. Posing for a photo – Olympic gold in hand – just might be the next best thing to being up on the podium.
But once inside I discovered that a visit to the pavilion is also a rare chance to hear the story behind the medals. On hand are the same experts who designed and manufactured the Olympic and Paralympic medals for the mint. And, despite having told their stories to more than 1,000 visitors a day for the last month, they’re eager to share the secret history behind Canada’s most precious metals.

Put on your white glove and you can strike a pose with the Olympic and Paralympic medals.
“This is the most amazing project I’ve ever worked on,” Renato Romozzi, the design coordinator behind the medals, explained to me. The team started with two designs, in the form of an orca for the Olympics and a raven for the Paralympics, both from Aboriginal artist Corrine Hunt. Every one of the 615 Olympic medals and 399 Paralympic medals is engraved with a unique section or “crop” from one of these designs.
The manufacturing process presented its own challenges. Inside the pavilion, a display tracks the progress of the medals from silver filings and copper ingots to finished products. Vancouver’s medals are the first to be wavy, rather than flat. Contorting flat blocks of metal and then preserving these undulations was a technical feat for the team at the mint. “It was the hardest thing we’ve ever done,” Renato said.
Special attention was given to the Paralympic medals, which have a distinct square shape. For the first time in Olympic history, the Paralympic medals are no smaller than their Olympic equivalents (In fact, the heaviest medal, weighing in at 576 grams, is the Paralympic gold). And each one is imprinted with a Braille inscription that reads “Vancouver 2010.”

The reverse side of the Paralympic medals bears the Braille inscription "Vancouver 2010."
There’s a lot to be learned in the mint exhibit (like the fact that gold medals aren’t gold at all, but silver with a thin gold plate), but I’ll confess that the highlight for me was handling the medals. Visitors are required to wear one white glove – like wannabe Michael Jacksons – to avoid tarnishing the surface. I slipped on mine and picked up an Olympic gold – heavier by far than I would have guessed. Feeling the weight in my hand, dreaming of Olympic glories, I had to ask the inevitable question: So how much is it really worth?
“It’s priceless,” Renato said, already prepared with an answer. “It would be a shame to put a value on it.”
Remy Scalza