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Platinum is the most expensive of the precious metals that is widely traded by very large numbers of people. Plenty of other metals are more expensive, but they are generally traded only by specialists and industries that consume them. Generally speaking public trades gold, silver, and platinum: Gold is the prettiest, silver is the cheapest (by a huge margin), and platinum is the fanciest.
Platinum is hoarded in large quantities by people like the Swiss (who also have a lot of gold, but I think they like their platinum better). It's also used in very crude industrial applications, like spark plugs, chemical reactions, and catalytic converters. A single platinum beaker can cost many thousands of dollars, and of course when they get old you never throw them out: You send them back in trade for a new one.
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 One ounce bullion bar.
I purchased this bar for spurious reasons in the early 1990s from a coin dealer near Berkeley, California. I think I paid about $500 for it, and now it's worth about $550, but in the meantime it's been worth more than double that, because of the price spike caused by catalytic converters in cars. I never noticed between then and now how much the price had gone up and back down.
In April 2002 I had Brian Knox jewelers in Champaign, Illinois weld a 90%Pt/10%Ir alloy loop onto the back of it, so it could be locked down to the table with a length of stainless steel cable.
Source: Coin Shop in California
Contributor: Theodore Gray
Acquired: 15 April, 2002
Price: $600/including loop
Size: 1.5"
Purity: 99.95%
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Spark Plug.
People make spark plugs out of the craziest elements, like Polonium. Platinum is used because it doesn't corrode under harsh conditions.
I remember hearing, probably on NPR's Car Talk show, that platinum spark plugs last so long that by the time you need to change them, they may have fused themselves to the aluminum block they are screwed into, making it impossible to remove them without stripping the engine block. They recommended just unscrewing and rescrewing them every couple of years. Ah, such modern problems.
Here's an interesting article about different elements in spark plugs.
Source: eBay seller accurateimage
Contributor: Theodore Gray
Acquired: 31 July, 2002
Text Updated: 11 August, 2007
Price: $15
Size: 3"
Purity: >90%
Sample Group: Spark Plugs
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 Sample from the RGB 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 RGB
Contributor: Max Whitby of RGB
Acquired: 25 January, 2003
Text Updated: 11 August, 2007
Price: Donated
Size: 0.2"
Purity: 99.95%
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Sample from the Everest 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 (except gases) weigh 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
Text Updated: 29 January, 2009
Price: Donated
Size: 0.2"
Purity: >99%
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 Mesh.
This is a very unusual and very expensive form of platinum: Fine ultra-pure woven platinum cloth. (Like mosquito netting only more expensive.) .Greg sells this stuff and he very kindly donated a sample: This is way, way more expensive than I could possibly afford for an element sample (about $1100 a gram). He also sells lots of other unusual elements on eBay: Check the source link for more information.
I chose this sample to represent its element in my Photographic Periodic Table Poster. The sample photograph includes text exactly as it appears in the poster, which you are encouraged to buy a copy of.
Source: Greg P
Contributor: Greg P
Acquired: 18 April, 2003
Text Updated: 4 May, 2007
Price: Donated
Size: 1.5"
Purity: 99.99%
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Wire.
Greg is helping me flesh out some elements with different and unusual forms, like wires, meshes, wools, foils, etc. This is high-purity platinum wire, very nice. He also sells lots of other unusual elements on eBay: Check the source link for more information.
Source: Greg P
Contributor: Greg P
Acquired: 18 April, 2003
Price: Donated
Size: 1"
Purity: 99.99%
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Foil.
Greg is helping me flesh out some elements with different and unusual forms, like wires, meshes, wools, foils, etc. This is high-purity platinum foil, very nice. He also sells lots of other unusual elements on eBay: Check the source link for more information.
Source: Greg P
Contributor: Greg P
Acquired: 18 April, 2003
Price: Donated
Size: 1"
Purity: 99.99%
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Camp heater.
This is a catalytic heater: It burns propane without an open flame, using a platinum catalyst that allows the propane to combine with oxygen (burn) at a much lower than normal temperature (about 800F). The platinum is distributed in tiny, high-surface area blobs throughout the ceramic mesh that makes up the burner unit. The advantage of this type of heater over one that just burns the propane directly is that it is less likely to burn your tent down, though the instructions still warn that it can set fabric on fire if it comes in direct contact. Here's a picture of the side of the box:
The heater works on the same principle as the catalytic converter in a car, which contains platinum or palladium to catalytically burn any fuel that remains in the exhaust gases (fully burned fuel is less polluting than unburned fuel). I have a picture of such a catalytic converter burning propane listed under palladium.
Source: Farm & Fleet
Contributor: Theodore Gray
Acquired: 20 May, 2003
Price: $35
Size: 8"
Purity: <1%
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Transfer leaf.
I had been told by several US distributors of gilding (gold leafing) products that platinum leaf was at present not available. The supply from Germany had dried up, you know, the usual story. But Max was able to find a source in England and when he came here to help install the beautiful periodic table display that he and I recently built for DePauw University, he brought me a book of it. Unlike my other leafs (see the Sample Group link below), this one is "transfer leaf" which means it's loosely attached to thin sheets of paper. The idea is that when you paste it down onto something it will come off the paper. This style of leaf is said to be easier for the amateur to work with, which is a good thing since I'm quite the amateur at gilding.
Source: Max Whitby of RGB
Contributor: Max Whitby of RGB
Acquired: 1 November, 2003
Text Updated: 11 August, 2007
Price: Donated
Size: 2"
Purity: 20%
Sample Group: Metal leaf
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Placer grains.
These are naturally occurring grains of platinum, similar to the gold placer grains one finds when panning for gold in streams. The seller says these are especially rare because many people who pan for gold throw them back in the water thinking they are just ordinary pebbles. They certainly look ordinary, but their high density would make them settle out with the grains of gold, which are similarly dense.
Source: eBay seller prospectorsgold
Contributor: Theodore Gray
Acquired: 23 November, 2003
Price: $20
Size: 0.05"
Purity: >90%
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Hollow cathode lamp.
Lamps like this are available for a very wide range of elements: Click the Sample Group link below to get a list of all the elements I have lamps like this for. They are used as light sources for atomic absorption spectrometers, which detect the presence of elements by seeing whether a sample absorbs the very specific wavelengths of light associated with the electronic transitions of the given element. The lamp uses an electric arc to stimulate the element it contains to emit its characteristic wavelengths of light: The same electronic transitions are responsible for emission and absorption, so the wavelengths are the same.
In theory, each different lamp should produce a different color of light characteristic of its element. Unfortunately, the lamps all use neon as a carrier gas: You generally have to have such a carrier gas present to maintain the electric arc. Neon emits a number of very strong orange-red lines that overwhelm the color of the specific element. In a spectrometer this is no problem because you just use a prism or diffraction grating to separate the light into a spectrum, then block out the neon lines. But it does mean that they all look pretty much the same color to the naked eye.
I've listed the price of all the lamps as $20, but that's really just a rough average: I paid varying amounts at various eBay auctions for these lamps, which list for a lot more from an instrument supplier.
(Truth in photography: These lamps all look alike. I have just duplicated a photo of one of them to use for all of them, because they really do look exactly the same regardless of what element is inside. The ones listed are all ones I actually have in the collection.)
Source: eBay seller heruur
Contributor: Theodore Gray
Acquired: 24 December, 2003
Price: $20
Size: 8"
Purity: 99.9%
Sample Group: Atomic Emission Lamps
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Vapor deposited crystal.
Ivan Timokhin has sent me several very beautiful gold crystals (take a look under gold, you can't miss them, and there's also a description of the process there), but this is the first platinum one he's sent. The gold ones of course have that beautiful color, but these are pretty spectacular as well (though they are very small).
Source: Ivan Timokhin
Contributor: Theodore Gray
Acquired: 20 November, 2007
Text Updated: 21 November, 2007
Price: $30
Size: 0.5"
Purity: >99.99%
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Platinum perforated cone.
This tiny little cone was presumably used as some kind of filter or filter holder: It's made of platinum because platinum is resistant to nearly all chemical attack. Expensive, but useful, and the people buying this kind of stuff are usually spending your money, not theirs.
Source: Anonymous
Contributor: Anonymous
Acquired: 2 December, 2007
Text Updated: 8 March, 2008
Price: Donated
Size: 1"
Purity: 99.99%
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Element coin.
Dave Hamric sells element samples under the name Metallium. He's developed a line of coins struck out of various common and uncommon metals: They are quite lovely, and very reasonably priced, considering the difficulty of creating some of them.
Here is the back side of this coin (click either picture to see it larger):
Click the Sample Group link below to see many other coins made of various elements, or click the link to his website above if you want to buy one like this.
Source: Dave Hamric
Contributor: Theodore Gray
Acquired: 24 December, 2007
Text Updated: 24 December, 2007
Price: $185
Size: 0.75"
Purity: >99%
Sample Group: Coins
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Platinum crucible.
This is old platinum labware, a thin-walled cup used to hold something very corrosive (if whatever was in it wasn't very corrosive, it would have been put into something less expensive).
Source: Anonymous
Contributor: Anonymous
Acquired: 8 March, 2008
Text Updated: 8 March, 2008
Price: Donated
Size: 1"
Purity: 99.99%
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Platinum body electrodes.
Platinum mesh electrodes coated with incredibly sticky goo, designed to be stuck to the body to deliver mild electric shocks for medicinal purposes. (Not a quack device, there are real reasons for wanting to do this.)
Source: eBay seller wahyouwan
Contributor: Theodore Gray
Acquired: 15 April, 2009
Text Updated: 15 April, 2009
Price: $10
Size: 1.5"
Purity: <1%
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Platinum electrode.
This glass loop contains two platinum electrodes a fixed distance apart. Dipped into a liquid it can be used to measure the conductivity of the liquid, thus indirectly measuring the concentration of something, salt for example, in the solution. Platinum is a good material for such electrodes because it does not corrode even under very strong chemical attack.
Source: eBay seller gainexpress
Contributor: Theodore Gray
Acquired: 17 April, 2009
Text Updated: 17 April, 2009
Price: $25
Size: 0.25"
Purity: 99%
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Platinum electrode.
Very pretty solid, pure platinum basket electrode.
Source: Anonymous
Contributor: Anonymous
Acquired: 17 October, 2008
Text Updated: 18 October, 2009
Price: Donated
Size: 2"
Purity: 99.9%
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Platinum electrode.
Very pretty solid, pure platinum basket electrode.
Source: Anonymous
Contributor: Anonymous
Acquired: 17 October, 2008
Text Updated: 18 October, 2009
Price: Donated
Size: 2"
Purity: 99.9%
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Platinum disk.
Nickel-sized (but thinner) disk of pure platinum.
Source: Anonymous
Contributor: Anonymous
Acquired: 17 October, 2008
Text Updated: 29 October, 2009
Price: Donated
Size: 0.5"
Purity: 99.9%
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