What You Need to know about Platinum
Posted by Francesco Fellini on
Platinum
We’re pretty sure the elves in those Hobbit films wear platinum; an elf deserves nothing less. Ethereal, mysterious platinum is considered the most precious of all jewellery metals, and is five times as rare as gold.
It’s also purer. To be officially termed gold, gold must be 41% (non-alloy) in composition, but the minimum for true platinum is 90%. In the quest for greater affordability, however, some jewellers now offer ‘585 platinum’, made up of 58.5% platinum and 41.5% copper and cobalt.
Some buyers fret that they’ll pay a premium price for platinum, yet have their ring or other jewellery mistaken for ‘only’ white gold. Worry not: white gold is originally produced from yellow gold, while platinum is already white, meaning its colouration is in fact whiter than white gold.
Platinum is a heavy metal, incredibly strong, doesn’t expand or distort when exposed to heat, and never tarnishes (unlike many politicians’ reputations). Instead, it ages beautifully, developing a lustrous patina – much like elf queen Cate Blanchette.
