Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Platinum is a chemical element; it has symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name originates from Spanish platina, a diminutive of plata "silver". [7] [8] Platinum is a member of the platinum group of elements and group 10 of the periodic table of ...
Platinum was first used for minting coins in Spanish-colonized America. Following the discovery of platinum in gold rocks, the Spaniards were unable to use it for a long time because they had no technology for processing this metal. The then-cheap platinum was used for various kinds of frauds, such as substituting it for the more expensive silver.
American Platinum Eagle, the official platinum bullion coin of the United States. Investment in platinum is often compared in financial history to gold and silver, which were both known to be used as money in ancient civilizations. Experts posit that platinum is about 15–20 times scarcer than gold and approximately 60–100 times scarcer than ...
Naturally occurring platinum and platinum-rich alloys were known by pre-Columbian Americans for many years. [5] However, even though the metal was used by pre-Columbian peoples, the first European reference to platinum appears in 1557 in the writings of the Italian humanist Julius Caesar Scaliger (1484–1558) as a description of a mysterious metal found in Central American mines between ...
The other metals discovered before the Scientific Revolution largely fit the pattern, except for high-melting platinum: Bismuth melts at 272 °C (521 °F) [21] Zinc melts at 420 °C (787 °F), [21] but importantly boils at 907 °C (1665 °F), a temperature below the melting point of silver. Consequently, at the temperatures needed to reduce ...
The earliest known powder metallurgy, and earliest working of platinum in the world, was apparently developed by the cultures of Esmeraldas (northwest Ecuador) before the Spanish conquest [17] Beginning with the La Tolita culture (600 BC – 200 CE), Ecuadorian cultures mastered the soldering of platinum grains through alloying with copper ...
The American Platinum Eagle is the official platinum bullion coin of the United States.In 1995, Director of the United States Mint Philip N. Diehl, American Numismatic Association President David L. Ganz, and Platinum Guild International Executive Director Jacques Luben began the legislative process of creating the Platinum Eagle.
Other precious metals include the platinum group metals: ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, osmium, iridium, and platinum, of which platinum is the most widely traded. [1] The demand for precious metals is driven not only by their practical use but also by their role as investments and a store of value. Historically, precious metals have commanded ...