Rarity

One of the more costly of useful metals is platinum (at the date of publication platinum is trading at US$1,227 per troy ounce), which can be priced at a premium of as little as parity with, to over double the price of, gold. Less than two years ago the price of platinum was double that of gold’s price, trading at over $2,200 per troy ounce.

When platinum was first discovered it was too hard to work with to make fine jewelry with the technology of the time. It wasn’t until 1803 that a method with which to make platinum malleable was discovered, leading to the creation of some of the most superb and prized antique jewelry pieces ever made.

Platinum’s name comes from the Spanish phrase platina del Pinto which, when literally translated, means, “little silver of the Pinto River.”

In certain areas platinum was at one time considered impure silver — only one hundred and fifty years ago Russian peasants wore buttons of platinum on their clothes — but when its peculiar properties became known it began to be greatly prized because of its rarity.

Louis Cartier, the famous Parisian jeweler who was later to become the Royal Jeweller to King Edward VII, was one of the first to fashion rings from platinum, using them as settings for diamonds to fashion jewelry of exceptional beauty.

Color

The color of platinum is a glistening blue white. Sometimes platinum is mistaken for silver, though it is considerably harder. Since the late 1800’s, and in particular during the Art Deco era, platinum has been favoured, by those willing to pay a significant premium, over gold for setting diamonds and other jewels, as it seems to increase their brilliancy while retaining its own lustre.

Characteristics

Platinum is:
• Malleable and ductile to a high degree;
• Less affected by acids than gold;
• Dense;
• Soft as silver;
• Platinum does not oxidize at any temperature (although it is corroded by cyanides, sulphur, halogens and caustic alkalis); and,
• Melts only at a very high temperature.

That platinum does not oxidize is one of the primary reasons that antique platinum rings, brooches and other platinum jewelry is so sought after. That, and its resistance to wear, permit antique platinum jewelry to be brought back to life with a good cleaning and polishing, giving the antique jewelry a brilliant look, likely how it originally looked over 100 years ago.

Sources of Platinum Used in Antique Jewelry

In the early 1900’s platinum was found chiefly in the Ural Mountains in Russia, but in small quantities it appeared also in Canada, New South Wales, Colombia, Borneo, and Sumatra, and in the United States. In 1909 the world’s production of platinum was only 198,000 ounces troy and of this about 190,000 ounces came from Russia, or about twenty-three times as much as the other countries produced. The United States supplied only about 700 ounces a year.

Today approximately 6 million troy ounces of platinum come onto the market each year with Russia still a major supplier, as are South Africa and Canada.

Platinum is found in veins or nuggets like gold, only in very much smaller quantities. It is mined in a similar way. The majority of platinum is found in as part of secondary deposits with other platinum group metals or as sulphides in nickel and copper deposits.