Rhodium is a very common plating for inexpensive jewelry, because it is extremely shiny and tarnish resistant. It's actually a very expensive metal, but you only need a microscopically thin layer to make something look beautiful, so it can be used for even very inexpensive items. Detailed Technical Data Compare at other websites: www.webelements.com Los Alamos National Labs Royal Society of Chemistry Toxicology Isotope information Minerals Translations and Etymology Science Fiction (Main Site) Comics Poetry (Main Site) Haiku (Main Site) Collections: Elements at Walmart Samples with Rotatable Images Rhodium plated Ring with Tanzanite. Ed got this from eBay. Maybe some day he'll get a solid rhodium ring, but he probably won't donate it to my table. Source: MrValue Jewelry Contributor: Ed Pegg Jr Acquired: 20 July, 2002 Price: $10 Size: 0.75" Purity: >90% 1cm wire. A very small sample indeed, but since it's from David Franco, it is of course of the highest purity. Source: David Franco Contributor: Ed Pegg Jr Acquired: 16 August, 2002 Price: $1 Size: 0.4" Purity: 99.9% Longer, thicker wire. I received this sample when Tryggvi and Timothy came to my sodium party. Source: Tryggvi Emilsson and Timothy Brumleve Contributor: Tryggvi Emilsson and Timothy Brumleve Acquired: 21 September, 2002 Price: Donated Size: 1" Purity: 99.9% Sample from the Red Green and Blue Company Element Set. The Red Green and Blue company in England sells a very nice element collection in several versions. Max Whitby, the director of the company, very kindly donated a complete set to the periodic table table. To learn more about the set you can visit my page about element collecting for a general description or the company's website which includes many photographs and pricing details. I have two photographs of each sample from the set: One taken by me and one from the company. You can see photographs of all the samples displayed in a periodic table format: my pictures or their pictures. Or you can see both side-by-side with bigger pictures in numerical order. The picture on the left was taken by me. Here is the company's version (there is some variation between sets, so the pictures sometimes show different variations of the samples): Source: Max Whitby of The Red Green & Blue Company Contributor: Max Whitby of The Red Green & Blue Company Acquired: 25 January, 2003 Price: Donated Size: 0.2" Purity: 99.8% Sample from the Everest Element Set. Up until the early 1990's a company in Russia sold a periodic table collection with element samples. At some point their American distributor sold off the remaining stock to a man who is now selling them on eBay. The samples (excepted gasses) weight about 0.25 grams each, and the whole set comes in a very nice wooden box with a printed periodic table in the lid. To learn more about the set you can visit my page about element collecting for a general description and information about how to buy one, or you can see photographs of all the samples from the set displayed on my website in a periodic table layout or with bigger pictures in numerical order. Source: Rob Accurso Contributor: Rob Accurso Acquired: 7 February, 2003 Price: Donated Size: 0.2" Purity: >99%