are the platinum coins that are being put out now ever going to really be all that rare? and forgive my stupidity (i'm young) why is platinum so much more valuible that gold or silver?
Platinum is more expensive than gold just becouse it cost more to extract Platinum from ores. In fact, there are more Platinum on Earth than Gold. But, it is very scarse, and there are much more gold ores than platinum ones. Another examples- Titanium, Indium, Scandium, and many others. They are not "rare" on Earth but it's really hard to extract them. Very interesting thing is a Silver. There are 18 times more Silver in the world than Gold, but it is 60-70-80 times cheaper, in the last years. Historically, it was 5-6 times cheaper than Gold in the ancient times, and 15-20 times cheaper in 18-19 centuary.
the problem is the amount of material you would need to crush per ounce which makes it prohibitive. with gold you can follow viens, and silver mining now is a by-product of base metal mining mostly lead and tin mining. the amount of above ground platinum in the world ever mined would fit into an average sized living room.This is what makes it so valuable,very little has ever been processed.
Lets not forget the other half of supply.....demand. For the past few years, platinum has been "in fashion". A jewler friend of mine has seen the cost of platinum per ounce almost triple in the past 5 years, and attributes much of it to its new found popularity. Any doubts just ask why people would buy a $10 pair of blue jeans for $150 just because of its name brand. I know its all far more complex than this.....just adding my 2 cents
Wow! 4 languages? That is impressive! What other languages do you know? The Platinum Eagles that sell at the US mint site just look like silver to me. Can you actually see a difference between silver and platinum in person?
Well my first language is Russian, and I am Ukrainian so I speak it too, then I got Argentinian citizenship so I speak Spanish very well. Also I can read and understand Portuguese, French and Bielorussian, due to their resemblanse with Spanish and Ukrainian. Its very easy to distinguish Platinum from Silver. First, the colour is still different. Second and more important is that platinum is much heavier then silver ( I think 2,2-2,3 times). Its even heavier then gold .
I thought may be it will be interesting for you to know that platinum got its name by Spanish adventures, who were looking for gold and were founding platinum- and were throwing it away, calling it like " bad silver" or something. Some people used it to counterfeit golden coins. These counterfeits are very valuable now.
that is really weird....... i know someone who is Ukranian then moved to argentina then moved here they speak Ukranian and Spanish too! (just not Russian)
anyway.......back to my first question about does anyone think platinum coins will ever become very rare? I ask because i might be getting some soon depending on what i find out here
NO. Bullion coins are made to be traded within the realms of bullion sales. While some collectors have crossed the bridge collecting bullion as coins, only a few have raised in price. These all are linked with low mintages due to no one buying them during the sales period. Platinum is the lowest selling of all the bullion in short because of the issue price.
Russia had platinum coins in circulation in 1840th I think. 3 , 6 , and 12 roubles. They are rare already.
i dare to think what the size of one of they 1/10th planinum eagles i see occasionally being sold on ebay. if its so dense it must be totaly tiny
The Red Book does not have pictures of the 1/10 oz., nor does it specify the diameter. However, the ounce has a diameter of approximately 26.5mm, and assuming the same thickness, the math indicates that a 1/10 would have a diameter of less than 8.4mm, the approximate diameter of a Bic pen!
They're pretty small to be sure. I've got some around here - I'll see if I can measure it and report back.