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Metals - PLATINUM

Platinum (Plat.)
Mineral Information: Platinum
Chemical Composition: Pt

Platinum is the most valued of precious metals and is used mostly for higher quality jewelry. It has a beautiful silver-white color, and does not tarnish. It is tougher than all precious jewelry metals, but still must be alloyed with stronger metals to prevent it from bending. Platinum jewelry is rare and exotic, and is the fastest growing jewelry material in the world.

Palladium: The most common of the platinum family members used to alloy platinum. Palladium looks like platinum but is stronger, and less dense than platinum, so it can be alloyed to make lighter pieces that are larger in size. Sometimes palladium is added to gold or silver to help resist tarnish. Palladium can also be used alone, especially for rings and earrings; however, it is rarely done.

Iridium and Ruthenium are most often used as alloys, to make platinum or palladium even harder than they already are.

Rhodium: Rhodium is harder, whiter and more reflective than platinum. Its main use in jewelry is as a thin surface plating designed to give a hard, bright, untarnishable white surface to articles made of platinum, white gold, and silver.

Platinum Jewelry Care: As with any other jewelry, care should be taken not to allow pieces to scratch each other, even though platinum wears and scratches far less than other metals. Most jewelry cleaners will work on platinum, or pieces can be ultrasonically cleaned, depending on the gemstones involved.