Precious metal
Precious metals are rare, naturally occurring
The best known precious metals are the coinage metals, which are gold and silver. Although both have industrial uses, they are better known for their uses in art, jewelry, and coinage. 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 much higher prices than common industrial metals.
Bullion
A metal is deemed to be precious if it is rare. The discovery of new sources of ore or improvements in mining or refining processes may cause the value of a precious metal to diminish. The status of a "precious" metal can also be determined by high demand or market value. Precious metals in bulk form are known as bullion and are traded on commodity markets. Bullion metals may be cast into ingots or minted into coins. The defining attribute of bullion is that it is valued by its mass and purity rather than by a face value as money.
Purity and mass
The level of purity varies from issue to issue. "Three nines" (99.9%) purity is common. The purest mass-produced bullion coins are in the
Coinage
Many nations mint
One of the largest bullion coins in the world was the 10,000-dollar Australian Gold Nugget coin minted in Australia which consists of a full kilogram of 99.9% pure gold. In 2012, the Perth Mint produced a 1-tonne coin of 99.99% pure gold with a face value of $1 million AUD, making it the largest minted coin in the world with a gold value of around $50 million AUD.[2] China has produced coins in very limited quantities (less than 20 pieces minted) that exceed 8 kilograms (260 ozt) of gold.[citation needed] Austria has minted a coin containing 31 kg of gold (the Vienna Philharmonic Coin minted in 2004 with a face value of 100,000 euro). As a stunt to publicise the 99.999% pure one-ounce Canadian Gold Maple Leaf series, in 2007 the Royal Canadian Mint made a 100 kg 99.999% gold coin, with a face value of $1 million, and now manufactures them to order, but at a substantial premium over the market value of the gold.[3][4]
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe mints the gold Mosi-oa-Tunya (coin) which is recognized as legal tender at the market value for its gold content.[5]
Economic use
Gold and silver, and sometimes other precious metals, are often seen as hedges against both inflation and economic downturn. Silver coins have become popular with collectors due to their relative affordability, and, unlike most gold and platinum issues which are valued based upon the markets, silver issues are more often valued as collectibles, far higher than their actual bullion value.[6]
Aluminium
Rough world market price ($/kg)
This section needs additional citations for verification. (September 2018) |
metal | symbol | mass abundance (ppb)[10] |
Valuable metal price (US$/kg) | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
10 Apr 2009 [11] |
22 Jul 2009 [12] |
7 Jan 2010 [citation needed] |
31 Dec 2014 [13] |
16 Jul 2018 [14][unreliable source?] |
2 Mar 2023 [15] | |||
Rhodium | Rh | 1 | 39,680 | 46,200 | 88,415 | 39,641 | 77,804[16] | 302,220 |
Platinum | Pt | 5 | 42,681 | 37,650 | 87,741 | 38,902 | 28,960 | 31,010 |
Gold | Au | 4 | 31,100 | 30,590 | 24,317 | 38,130 | 43,764 | 59,040 |
Palladium | Pd | 15 | 8,430 | 8,140 | 13,632 | 25,559 | 32,205 | 46,440 |
Iridium | Ir | 1 | 14,100 | 12,960 | 13,117 | 15,432 | 46,940[17] | 147,890 |
Osmium | Os | 1.5 | 13,400 | 12,200 | 12,217 | 12,217 | ||
Rhenium | Re | 0.7 | 7,400 | 7,000 | 6,250 | 2,425 | ||
Ruthenium | Ru | 1 | 2,290 | 2,730 | 5,562 | 1,865 | 8,423[18] | 14,950 |
Germanium | Ge | 1,500 | 1,050[19] | 1,038 | ||||
Beryllium | Be | 2,800 | 850 | |||||
Silver | Ag | 75 | 437 | 439 | 588 | 441 | 556 | 670 |
Indium | In | 50[20] | 325[19] | 520 | ||||
Gallium | Ga | 19,000 | 580 | 425[19] | 413 | |||
Tellurium | Te | 1 | 158.70 | |||||
Bismuth | Bi | 8.5 | 15.40 | 18.19 | ||||
Mercury | Hg | 85 | 18.90 | 15.95 |
See also
- Alchemy
- Gemstone
- Gold as an investment
- Hallmark
- List of bullion dealers
- List of elements facing shortage
- Metal as money
- Metallurgical assay
- Noble metal
- Palladium as an investment
- Platinum as an investment
- Silver as an investment
- Synthesis of precious metals (precious metal transformation)
- Taxation of precious metals
- Troy weight
References
- ^ Platinum Guild: Applications Beyond Expectation Archived 2009-05-03 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Australian Kangaroo One Tonne Gold Coin". www.perthmint.com.au. Retrieved 28 March 2023.
- ^ "the Greatest coined gold in the world". e-allmoney.com. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 23 July 2015.
- ^ UKBullion (2014). "100kg Fine Gold Coin". Archived from the original on 2014-02-27. Retrieved 2014-03-18.
- ^ "Zimbabwe debuts gold coins as legal tender to curb inflation but it may be out of reach for the average citizen". ABC News (Australia). 25 July 2022. Archived from the original on 1 November 2023. Retrieved 9 November 2023.
- S2CID 158268743.
- ^ a b Geller, Tom (2007). "Aluminum: Common Metal, Uncommon Past". Chemical Heritage Magazine. 27 (4). Archived from the original on 26 April 2019. Retrieved 22 March 2018.
- ^ Karmarsch, C. (1864). "Fernerer Beitrag zur Geschichte des Aluminiums". Polytechnisches Journal. 171 (1): 49. Archived from the original on 2023-08-22. Retrieved 2021-11-03.
- from the original on 2016-01-24. Retrieved 2008-09-16.
- ^ The abundance of the element, a measure for its rarity, is given in mass fraction as kg in the earth's crust (CRC Handbook). David R. Lide, ed. (2005). "Section 14, Geophysics, Astronomy, and Acoustics; Abundance of Elements in the Earth's Crust and in the Sea". CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics (85 ed.). Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press.
- ^ Mostly taken from London Metal Exchange.
- ^ From the http://www.thebulliondesk.com/ Archived 2012-09-14 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ From the http://www.thebulliondesk.com Archived 2012-09-14 at the Wayback Machine and http://www.taxfreegold.co.uk Archived 2021-04-21 at the Wayback Machine (mid price quoted)
- ^ From the http://www.bullionexchanges.com
- ^ From https://www.min Archived 2022-08-22 at the Wayback Machineing.com
- ^ From http://www.infomine.com/investment/metal-prices/rhodium/1-year/
- ^ From http://www.infomine.com/investment/metal-prices/iridium/1-year/
- ^ From http://www.infomine.com/investment/metal-prices/ruthenium/ Archived 2016-05-17 at the Wayback Machine1-year/
- ^ a b c The metal Price ($/kg)s of gallium, germanium, and indium are taken from MinorMetals.com Archived 2008-05-15 at the Wayback Machine as examples of modern precious metals used for investment / speculation.
- ^ Tolcin A. (2012) U.S. Geological Survey Mineral Commodity Summaries 2012.
External links
- Precious Metals Fraud US Commodity Futures Trading Commission Precious Metals Fraud Advisory