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related:
Historical Platinum
The term platinum often
brings connotations of high-tech, status and wealth. Light
greyish in color, the metal has come to be associated with
credit cards, its role
in the aerospace industry, even in jewelry and as a mark of
achievement as in ‘platinum’ sales in the recording industry. As a standard
in the generic sense, it normally denotes a rank above gold,
silver and bronze. As its reputation attests, platinum is
without a doubt, a precious metal.
Evolving
into Futures
In 1956 Platinum futures were first introduced by the New
York Mercantile Exchange (NYME). (palladium introduced 1968)
Today, platinum continues as a scarse metal indeed - joined by palladium as part
of the platinum metals group. With total mine production at only a fraction of
gold production. Relatively low mine production, at approximately five million
ounces/year, combined with estimates of limited below-ground reserves, are joined
by limited above-ground inventories
It is not uncommon for the price of platinum to double gold.
History shows that the South American Indians utilized the metal
as early as over 1,000 years back.
The first written evidence is by the Italian Julius Scalinger,
in 1557. Europe later learned of the new metal through the
course of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
The appearance of platinum made another resurgence during
the seventeenth century. When Spanish Conquistidors inadvertantly
discovered deposits in
a Columbian river basin while panning for gold. Hence,
the birth of the name, ‘Platina’ – which
derives from “Plata’.
Even today the metal goes by the name “white gold’ when
referring to jewelry and as the accepted Greek term (monikered
by Henrik Sheffer)
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