Own any Palladium? I picked up one a few years ago when Palladium was about on par with platinum (& both were above gold). Now, the metal seems to be on a tear & platinum is lagging. Considering that both are about equally prevalent in the earth's crust (ie, both quite rare), I'm not sure what's causing Palladium to skyrocket. It may be slightly preferred in catalytic converters due to a lower melting point? Anyway, here's my only Pd piece, a 1987 100 Franc with almost half an ounce of Palladium in it. Mintage was 7,000, which had to be a significant portion of the Palladium produced that decade. I'm shocked by how much it's appreciated in such a short time just based on the intrinsic value. Do you have any Palladium pretties to share?
As I understand it, manufacturers chose palladium solely because it was so much cheaper than platinum. Through the 1970s and 1980s, palladium was generally half the price of platinum, sometimes cheaper than that. I think they're more or less equally effective, but you have to engineer your processes for one or the other from the beginning, so switching is very costly. Nah, they crank out millions of ounces a year of the stuff for industry. But it's never been very popular for coins, partly because it tends to look duller and grayer than silver or even platinum. I had an opportunity to buy a 1oz palladium eagle not too long after they came out. I passed, because I thought $1300 was a ridiculous markup. Sigh.
Cool coin, I don't have any Palladium at all. Only a couple of small Platinums and the rest, small amount, mostly gold! Wish I had Rhodium tho'!
I agree. I own some ballerinas and have to say Pd is an ugly coin metal. It has already been announced that some major users are switching back to Pt over Pd, so I would expect long term the metals to come more into equilibrium.
I think I have one as well as other Platinum group metals. I even have an Iridium coin. Will look for photos.
Rhodium is continuing to go up like a rocket. $12,000 *an ounce* is nuts. Are there any Rhodium coins out there? https://www.marketwatch.com/story/w...as-already-rallied-by-30-this-year-2020-01-17
I have one of those Bermuda 1987 Shipwreck 25D. 1 oz coins plus the 2018 US Mint Eagle and a 2005 1/2 Chinese I bought on accident. The Bermuda I bought by recall in the 1990s for USD 118! Just for the novelty of it at the time. I agree, the metal looks a bit like nickel and is just too grayish for my tastes...
Yes, a company called Metallium makes coins of many elements. I believe I bought a Rhodium coin from them as I have all the Platinum Group elements in coin form except for Osmium: the densest naturally occuring element. Osmium I have in ingot form as it's too brittle to strike into a coin although it can be cast nicely. I don't recall Pd being particularly expensive 2 or 3 years ago. More expensive than Ag but less than Au. Their coins are around 8.0 grams each: about the size of a nickel and vary in price: i.e. Pt is more expensive than Cu. I've used these for a display to a high school science class.
