Los Angeles herald., 1910-10-18
PLATINUM NOW WORTH
MORE THAN PURE COLD
Eiqht-DoIIar Advance in the Year
Places White Ahead of
Yellow Metal

Platinum, says an eastern exchange,
is now more costly than gold, a taot
that is significant of several things
Gold is quoted at $20.67 an ounce, while
platinum has gone to $3.50 an ounce,
an advance of IS in a year. The two
metals have sometimes been almost at
a parity in days gone by, although the
supply of platinum has always been
far below that of gold. Russia once
used some small platinum coins, and
the metal has probably appeared in the
coinage of other countries. Its chief
use, however, has always been in the
arts Much of it has been used in
electric light bulbs, and 1t has long
been a most important adjunct to the
scientific laboratory. jewelers. also use
it in the setting of some gems. Every
considerable chemical laboratory has
vessels of platinum worth from some
hundreds to some thousands of dol
lars.
Fortunately for the cost of labora-
tory experimentation, platinum is prac-
tfcally indestructible, and the chemist
uses his platinum "plate' a lifetime,
or has made over when 1t is injured
by accident. The metal was early dis
covered in the United States, and Is
still produced here, in the Ural noun
tains of Russia and associated with
copper in the Alps. 1t undergoes no
form of oxidation by exposure to air or
water and cannot be dissolved in any
single acid, though 1t slowly yields
to the attack of nitromuriatic acid. No
forge fire can melt it, but it may be
fused in the electric current. 1t Is far
better suited for some of the special
purposes to which 1t has been applied
in the arts than gold would be, though
the fact that platinum is considerably
heavier than gold is a disadvantage
to the former.
If platinum continues to rise, or
even maintains its present. relative
value to gold, we may see the latter
substituted for the former In some uses.
1t will be interesting to see how
strongly the increased value of plat
mum shall stimulate prospecting for
this extremely scarce metal Mean
while, the relative value of gold and
platinum will suggest some interesting
considerations to those who have
watched the history of gold, and es-
pecially to the people of the United
States, where it has figured so sig
niflcantly in our politics, and where
its increasing abundance Is held in part
responsible for the present high price
of many necessaries. Within about
forty years a large part of the civilized
world has adopted the single gold
monetary standard, with the result
that the demand for gold in tine world
coinage has enormously increased.
Within the latter thirty years of that
period and especially within the last
fifteen years, the worlds output of
gold has, it is believed, more than kept
pace with the increased demand for it
as money, with the result that the
value of gold is supposed to have de-
creased so as to disarrange the scale
of commodity prices. During the same
period there has been no such spec
tacular change in the demand for
platinum or in the supply Of the metal,
though the demand must pretty stead
lily have grown.
When the so-called "crime of '73"
was perpetrated gold and platinum
were nearly at a parity. We have since
fought two bitter political campaigns
upon the theory advanced by one ar
dent set of political thinkers that the
relative scarcity of gold was bringing
us to ruin, but now we see platinum
more than 60 per cent above the value
of gold. If the relative value holds the
specialists and the people will have
food for thought.