The Essential Guide to Investing in Precious Metals by David L Ganz

Author:David L Ganz [Ganz, David L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-4402-2371-6
Publisher: F+W Media, Inc.
Published: 2011-04-04T04:00:00+00:00

To put the platinum bullion coins in a historic context, gold and silver have been mined since antiquity, and gold and silver coins have been produced for over 2,000 years. By contrast, platinum has a history that is only 450 years old.

Discovered by Italian scientist Julius Scaliger in 1557, large quantities of platinum were not available until about 1750, after the Spaniards found platinum in Peru.

They named it platinum from the Spanish word “plata,” which means silver, a way of describing the actual grayish color of the metal. Miners frequently refer to it as white gold because it can be found in beds of gold-bearing sand.

Early numismatic use of the metal swiftly followed. A platinum medal was produced commemorating the discovery of the metal in large alluvial quantities. Platinum coinage began in 1763 from dies normally utilized for the Columbian 8-escudo gold coin, and would continue to be struck through 1819.

Chile, Bolivia and Peru also made unsuccessful attempts at issuing platinum coinage, as did Spain, which produced at least 13 varieties of patterns between 1776 and 1904 in the silver-grey colored platinum metal, and a number of regular issues.

Even into the 1960s, there were new discoveries of platinum coinage issues. In 1962, dealer Jerry Cohen discovered a platinum 1867 10-escudo piece (before then, the only known specimens were dated either 1866 or 1868).

Like gold, platinum can be found in nugget form. In 1843, a 21-pound lump was found in Russia, which regularly issued platinum coinage for circulation from 1828-1845 in the 3-, 6- and 12-ruble.

Mintages for the 3-ruble coins of the 1830s show how well-accepted the coin was in Russia. More than 106,000 pieces were produced in 1830 and some 86,500 the following year. In 1832, some 65,767 pieces were produced. By 1842, a total of 145,578 pieces were coined.

One of the heaviest substances known, about 21 times the weight of water of the same volume, platinum is easy to shape like gold and silver and does not tarnish. Chemically described as the 78th element on the periodic table, it has a high density of 21.5 grams per cubic centimeter and a substantial melting point of 1,772 degrees Celsius (3,224 degrees Fahrenheit).

Most platinum is not mined by those seeking it as a singular metal; rather, it is a byproduct of mining for other metals, mostly non-precious with industrial use. It is the most valuable impurity of most nickel deposits.

Other platinum group metals such as ruthenium, palladium, osmium and iridium are similarly found and mined. All of this combines to make platinum among the rarest of metals and the scarcest of coins.

About 60 years after platinum’s major commercial availability began, the U.S. Mint produced its first platinum pattern coin, a half dollar dated 1814 described by Dr. J. Hewitt Judd in his book, United States Pattern, Experimental & Trial Pieces, as an experimental piece from regular dies.

This wasn’t the last American experience with platinum coinage before the modern era. By the early 1840s, researcher Nick Parker wrote, “the stepped up production

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