What Jacinda Ardern will receive if she wins the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize

Jacinda Ardern will take home a diploma, a heavy medal and a massive cash prize if she becomes the 2020 Nobel Peace laureate on Friday.

New Zealand's Prime Minister is one of the front-runners for the award, owing to her responses to the Christchurch terror attack in 2019 and this year's COVID-19 pandemic.

She joins the likes of teen climate activist Greta Thunberg, the World Health Organization, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and Black Lives Matter as bookmakers' favourites for the prize.

The recipient of the coveted award will be announced at a ceremony from the Norska Nobelinstitutet in Oslo, Norway at 10pm on Friday (NZ time). Last year's winner, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, will present the prize.

If Ardern does win, she's in line for a trio of extremely valuable awards. Here's what she could take home.

A specially-designed diploma

Peace Prize laureates receive a diploma directly from the Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee. It is the only Nobel prize not awarded by the King of Sweden.

It comes in the form of a unique artwork printed on "specially ordered handmade paper", encased in a grey woven paperboard box lined with pigskin suede.

The design of each Peace Prize diploma is decided on by The Norwegian Nobel Committee.

Up until 1990, diplomas were individually designed with each laureate in mind - however it's now usually linked to an annual theme instead. Previous themes have included birds and flowers.

A gold medal

Ardern is also in line for a medal made of recycled green-gold, plated in 24-carat gold.

On one side of the 175g medal is the head of Alfred Nobel - the inventor, businessman and scientist whose fortune funds the awards - surrounded by an inscription that reads "for the peace and brotherhood of men" in Latin.

On the other side is the same inscription alongside an image of "a group of three men forming a fraternal bond".

Due to their high gold content, the medals are highly valuable and often targeted by thieves.

Famously, German scientists Max von Laue and James Franck dissolved their medals in nitro-hydrochloric acid during World War II to prevent confiscation by the Nazis. The gold was retrieved from the solution when the war ended, and their medals were able to be re-cast.

A massive cash prize

Whoever wins the award, they're in luck - the monetary award handed to the Nobel Peace Prize laureate has just gone up this year to 10 million Swedish kronor (NZ$1.71 million).

The amount awarded each year is determined by the Nobel Foundation, and has increased markedly in recent decades.

Ardern is one of the front-runners for the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize.
Ardern is one of the front-runners for the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize. Photo credit: Newshub.

This year's amount is the highest the cash prize has been since 2011, when it was also worth 10 million kronor - that's more than three times what the prize was worth in the 1980s after adjusting for inflation.

It's commonplace for Nobel Prize recipients to donate the money, but others have been unapologetic in spending their winnings on themselves.

Sir Paul Nurse, the winner of the 2001 Nobel Medicine Prize, bought a Kawasaki GPZ motorbike, while 1993 winner Richard Roberts constructed a croquet lawn. Others have bought yachts, houses and split the money with their friends.