Platinum 3-ozt bars (USA 1936) and the September 1936 Pt Price Spike

Who made these 3 ozt bars (Baker&Co?) and what is the collector premium for a 1936 ingot now? Does anyone here have any info?

From The Minerals Yearbook 1936 p.751 'Platinum and Allied Metals' by H.W. Davis reported: "Refined Platinum in 3-ounce bars was made available for speculative and investment buying in 1936. Chiefly because of such speculative flurry and improvement in the world demand, the price of Platinum advanced from $33 an ounce in April to $70 an ounce in September, but towards the end of the year it dropped to $48 an ounce. The price of Iridium rose from $55 to $175 during the period of heavy demand."

The New York Price of Platinum had actually risen from $26.81 (in late March 1936) to $70. or 161% in just 7 months .... annualized, that's ~352%.
The Platinum Price retracement was ~-31.4%, September to December..... annualized, ~-74.7% decline.

On the chart below, the Pt spike looks small (compared to Iridium) but Platinum went from 'cheaper than Gold' to 'double the price of Gold' in just a few days. (Could it happen again? That is the sort of event Bullion Bugs today dream of.)

The Minerals Yearbook 1936 p.752 shows a refined Pt consumption chart. Most industrial consumers' demand increased 49% - 60% (chemical, electrical & dental) ; the major sector, jewelry demand (64%) for Pt curiously fell -9%, while jewelry demand for Pd rose +13.4%

There's no 'Investment' category but the "Miscellaneous and Undistributed" exploded from 2,505 ozt > 16,288 ozt ... 550% gain. If Miscellaneous had only grown as much as most sectors 1935-6 (~55%, unweight avg) to 3,888 ozt, we can see the Undistributed (marginal & additional) increase was 12,400 ozt. Presumably, most of that went to jewelry production anyway.

If all 12,400 ozt of this hypothetical Undistributed increase had been 3-ounce ingots, as many as 4,133 Platinum bars may have been produced.
I don't think so. Presume jewelry demand (the largest sector) actually rose about as much as others; true 'Investment/Speculation' portion of "Miscellaneous" was probably about 3,511 ozt, a more modest increase of about 1,000 ozt.

So my best guess is probably ~<330 of these 3-Ozt bars .999 Pt were manufactured in 1936.

I don't know IF the September 1936 Pt price spike was related to the issue of investment/speculation bars or the 'recorded decline' in jewelry demand for the metal. I suppose it was a very short-lived cornered market, readjusting to a higher price level. I have no further info or background on the 1936 Pt Price Spike.



The 1936 average New York Refined Platinum Price rose +28.1% (same source)
The 1936 average Australian (intrinsic) Platinum Price rose +31.72%. (Official Year Book of the Commonwealth of Australia 1939 No. 32 , p.549)

fwiw, the (adjusted .999 Fine) Silver Price in London rose 9.87% in 1936, ~9.5% in the 7mo period.
Same time-frame, the Gold Price appears to be flat.

The USD-Sterling rate fell slightly, the Dollar weakening <-2% March-Sept., with some recovery by year end.

 

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Do you own one? Can we see a Picture?

 

I'd show if I could find one.

I also have no idea what the (presumably) numismatic value of an "investor ingot" might be.

Is it possible they were ALL melted?

Lots of angles on this, got me wondering. I cannot confirm US Pt ore prices jumped so much, nor did (intrinsic) prices of foreign Pt imported to the USA. The Oz handbook doesn't mention the September 1936 price spike, either.

Imagine if Gold or Silver more than doubled in a month, just because of a new bullion product for investors. That's never happened, has it? (Ag in 1979 was a cornered mkt, in Paper.)