A precious metal is a rare, naturally occurring metallic chemical element of high economic value. Chemically, the precious metals are less reactive than most elements, have high lustre, are softer or more ductile, and have higher melting points than other metals. Historically, precious metals were important as currency, but are now regarded mainly as investment and industrial commodities. Gold, silver, platinum, and palladium each have an ISO 4217 currency code.
The best-known precious metals are the coinage metals gold and silver. While both have industrial uses, they are better known for their uses in art, jewellery and coinage. Other precious metals include the platinum group metals: ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, osmium, iridium, and platinum, of which platinum is the most widely traded.
The demand for precious metals is driven not only by their practical use, but also by their role as investments and a store of value. Historically, precious metals have commanded much higher prices than common industrial metals.
A metal is deemed to be precious if it is rare. The discovery of new sources of ore or improvements in mining or refining processes may cause the value of a precious metal to diminish. The status of a "precious" metal can also be determined by high demand or market value. Precious metals in bulk form are known as bullion, and are traded on commodity markets. Bullion metals may be cast into ingots, or minted into coins. The defining attribute of bullion is that it is valued by its mass and purity rather than by a face value as money.
One of the largest bullion coins in the world is the 10,000 dollar Australian Gold Nugget coin minted in Australia which consists of a full kilogram of 99.9% pure gold. There have been a small number of larger bullion coins, but they are impractical to handle and not produced in mass quantities. China has produced coins in very limited quantities (less than 20 pieces minted) that exceed 260 troy ounces (8 kg) of gold. Austria has minted a coin containing 31 kg of gold (the Vienna Philharmonic Coin minted in 2004 with a face value of 100,000 euro). As a stunt to publicise the 99.999% pure one-ounce Canadian Gold Maple Leaf series, in 2007 the Royal Canadian Mint made a 100 kg 99.999% gold coin, with a face value of $1 million, and now manufactures them to order, but at a substantial premium over the market value of the gold.
+ Valuable metal Price ($/kg)s containing all precious metals names in bold | ||||||||||
metal | ! mass abundance |
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! Price ($/kg) 2009-04-10 |
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! Price ($/kg) 2009-07-22 |
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! Price ($/kg) 2010-01-07 | |||
0 | | | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
align=left | Platinum | 5 ppb| | 42681 | 37650 | 49995 | |||||
align=left | Rhodium | 1 ppb| | 39680 | 46200 | 88415 | |||||
align=left | Gold | 4 ppb| | 31100 | 30590 | 36370 | |||||
align=left | Iridium | 1 ppb| | 14100 | 12960 | 13117 | |||||
align=left | Osmium | 1.5 ppb| | 13400 | 12200 | 12217 | |||||
align=left | Palladium | 15 ppb| | 8430 | 8140 | 13632 | |||||
align=left | Rhenium | 0.7 ppb| | 7400 | 7000 | 6250 | |||||
align=left | Ruthenium | 1 ppb| | 2290 | 2730 | 5562 | |||||
align=left | Germanium | 1500 ppb| | 1050 | 1038 | ||||||
align=left | Beryllium | 2800 ppb| | 850 | |||||||
align=left | Silver | 75 ppb| | 437 | 439 | 588 | |||||
align=left | Gallium | 19000 ppb| | 425 | 413 | ||||||
align=left | Indium | 250 ppb| | 325 | 520 | ||||||
align=left | Tellurium | 1 ppb| | 158.70 | |||||||
align=left | Mercury | 85 ppb| | 18.90 | 15.95 | ||||||
align=left | Bismuth | 8.5 ppb| | 15.40 | 18.19 |
bg:Ценен метал ca:Metall preciós cs:Drahý kov de:Edelmetalle et:Väärismetallid es:Metal precioso fa:فلزهای قیمتی fr:Métal précieux io:Precoza metalo he:מתכת יקרה mk:Драгоцен метал ja:貴金属 simple:Precious metal sr:Племенити метали tr:Kıymetli metal zh:貴金屬
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