Wil platinum ever surpass gold again in price?

What are all of your opinions regarding the Platinum Eagle coin from the US mint? I am surprised they did not lower the price of the coin considering the drop in Platinum's price. Are the Gold Eagles better?

 

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Yea i used to live there :smile , i have seen it used in rings, amulets and is usually worn by groom.

 

Well you can still bargain hunt and get the platinum eagle for small premium over spot. Personally i have been shifting to Platinum rather than buy any gold or Silver coin (unless its close to spot) in this market.

 

Jewelry is almost never pure gold. The metal is simply too soft for it. It's always alloyed with other metal to toughen it up just like they did with circulating coins. Typically jewelry ranges from 10 karat to 18 karat which is 41% to 75% gold. You will never find such a thing as a 24 karat (100%) pure gold wedding ring because a ring is subject to a lot of abuse and it simply would not hold up.

Typically the gold is alloyed with copper, silver, nickel, platinum or the choice of which determines the final color. "White Gold", which was incorrectly characterized as backwards/worthless, (how silly) is the name given to gold that has been alloyed with any metal from one of the white metals. (nickel, palladium, silver, platinum, etc) There is no difference between white gold and any other gold alloy used for jewelry except the color and cost.

A white gold piece of jewelry could be 90% gold and 10% nickel. Hardly, worthless junk.

 

Thanks medoraman, Platinum is much rarer and typically more pure. The finest jewelry auctions feature gems mounted in platinum.

 

Also, platinum is more difficult to craft, so it would be more desirable and expensive making it more desirable

 

Platinum is never used in 100% pure form for jewelry for the same reasons as gold. The pure metal lacks the durability for it. It also tends to lose it's luster, often explained away as having a patina, which IMO, is why gold is much more preferred for jewelry making. While it's rare, platinum is simply not very attractive on its own which is the whole point of jewelry (i.e. no bling), or for that matter, coins as well.

 

That makes no sense in that case why not use Tungsten. Platinum main use in jewelry is it strength allowing it to be used where gems need to be held.
Added: Too late Fatima already replied :yes:

 

Well, I have a platinum ring and its 100% pure. Platinum in its pure state can scratch, though. Its just dense, not hard, though much harder than gold. I also agree its not nearly as mallable, that is the great advantage of gold. It always has been. Its a wonderfully workable metal.

Its very interesting jjack that you have seen white gold in India. Thanks for posting that. I have visited China and SE Asia more than India, and my friends who own jewelry stores are in China and SE Asia, and I had never seen this in their stores. I was unaware of it being popular in India. I do know platinum is the most popular jewelry metal in Japan, and as its the 3rd largest economy in the world, this is a considerable source of demand for it.

Bottom line, I like platinum at today's prices, but am unsure if I need to add more PM to my portfolio. If I were adding PM, it would be platinum and maybe a little palladium.

That's all, and simply my opinion.

Chris

 

Thinking back i actually remember platinum being all the rage in 80s in SEast India (there might have been some import regulations lifted against it?) and popularity subsided after that.

Yes i am look to buy platinum since i don't have any but the problem is price for most platinum coins have so much premium it is hard to bargain hunt, may be due to fact there is what like only 24 pages of platinum coins that are in auction in the bay vs hundreds for gold and thousand+ for silver...

 

I recommend that you go and look at an American Platinum Eagle at some coin shows. It's really a small unattractive coin and IMO, coins, even bullion coins, have to at least look good before people will dump that kind of cash on it. Any proof quarter will look like a more expensive coin. It's probably the reason there are not many platinum coins around, little demand. Rarity doesn't mean much if demand isn't there. The reason that premiums are high is because they are sold that way. It's expensive to coin low volume coins.

As an proof of this, about a year or so ago, there was a lot of excitement over rhodium coins for much of the same reason that people get excited over platinum.

 

I think Pt is putting in a bottom here and will have a good run once the surplus is worked through. The cost to produce is pretty high for some of the miners.

You can occasionally score some on ebay near melt. But with the big drop in price recently that is not happening right now.

 

I should have taken your advice. Palladium has made steady climb since this posting.

 

This thread went off topic. Also, I never said platinum was always 100% pure. I still stand by my statement/opinion that Platinum is a more desirable metal in jewelry.

 

http://unctad.org/infocomm/anglais/platinum/uses.htm

Kind of interesting. I didn't know platinum was now bigger in China than Japan for jewelry uses.

 

Now? Maybe you didn't realize that site hasn't been updated in over 6 years and they are citing the period of 2001-2005. This is why I don't post web links which offer up opinions as any kind of proof for a position. It's easy enough to find a web link to say most anything.

The biggest use for platinum is in catalytic converters.

 

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Have-Gold-Bugs-Eaten-Platinum-indexuniverse-3594588690.html?x=0

Here's a fresh link in this subject.

 

Just thought I'd revisit this topic because I've kept an eye on it since. The $180 gap has closed to $77 and it's gone up over $200. I bought gold instead, but it's done well too. It's looking like platinum will pass gold again, it's been heading that direction since December for sure.

 

$10 difference, it's taken less than 3 months. Looks like it will surpass gold in March, so I'd say the answer to this thread is definetly yes.

 

I've been under the impression that Silver and Platinum are the smart long term investments, but much of this is from observing what other people estimate.