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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@yahoo.com
Contributor: Theodore Gray
Acquired: 31 July, 2002
Price: $15
Size: 3"
Purity: >90%
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Spark plug.
This spark plug claims that unlike ordinary spark plugs that have a platinum alloy electrode, it has a pure platinum center electrode. It also claims to use yttrium in the ground electrodes.
Source: Auto Parts Store
Contributor: Theodore Gray
Acquired: 10 January, 2003
Price: $5
Size: 3"
Purity: >90%
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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%
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