What metals are considered precious?

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You’ve probably heard the term “precious metal” before, personally when I hear the word precious I can’t help but think of Smeagol, from the Lord of the Rings, whispering “my precious”. And considering he’s holding a gold ring, which is a “precious metal” it’s even more relevant.

There’s your first clue to one of the metals that are considered precious, yes, gold! Gold is possibly the most popular precious metal around the world. The bright, reddish-yellow metal sparks thoughts of pirates, doubloons, sunken treasures, maybe even dragons and their hoards of jewels, gold, and silver coins.

But what is precious metal?

You may think of gold and silver and know that they are generally high value metals, but why? Why do we think this particular metal is worth more than another?

The largest factor in the worth and value of metals such as gold, is--and you might have guessed this--the scarcity. When there’s not a whole lot of something, it tends to drive the value up as it’s desirable. People want something that’s rare, so they can say they have a piece of this thing that not many other people have.

Sometimes when a new metal or other material is found, it holds high value because it’s thought to be scarce, or rare. An example of this would be Aluminum. Although aluminum is the most abundant metal in the world, it used to be considered a precious metal when it was first discovered, due to the fact that it was incredibly difficult to actually extract the metal from the ore. In fact, in 1884, the capstone of the Washington Monument was cast in aluminum. At this time, aluminum held as much value as silver! As it became easier to extract this metal the price dropped down.

What are precious metals used for?

Historically, precious metals were used as currency. Many coins were made of gold or silver and the inherent value of the metal is what gave value to them as coins. Nowadays our currency is what is known as fiat currency, fiat money is a currency that is backed by the government and not by a commodity like gold or silver.

In modern times, precious metals are generally considered an investment, as well as having use in industrial applications. Gold is useful in many different applications, it’s malleable, it conducts electricity, it plays well with other metals (creating alloys), and is quite easy to work with. In fact gold is found in almost every electronic device, like your cell phone! Of course these are very small amounts of gold. 

The largest use for gold is jewelry, gold jewelry accounts for about 75% of all gold consumed around the world. Gold is also used in dentistry, and even in rockets and aerospace engineering.

Now gold isn’t the only precious metal with multiple uses. Silver is another precious metal that has many applications in industry as well. Some of the uses of silver, aside from coins and bullion, include solar panels, cutlery, electronics, and even in antibiotics!

The third most common precious metal, platinum, also has some interesting uses in our everyday lives. Platinum is used in catalytic converters to convert emissions into CO2 and water, palladium is also used for this and is actually the preferred metal for this as it does a better job. Platinum also has uses in computer parts, jewelry, and oil refining, among other things.



What metals are considered precious and why?

There are quite a few metals that are considered precious, here’s a quick list of the most common metals and some brief points on what each one is used for, in no particular order:

• Gold Considered precious for its color, conductivity, malleability, and uses in electronics, dentistry, aerospace, coins, and is commonly collected for its value.

• Silver Considered precious for its uses in jewelry, dentistry, photography, antimicrobial agents, coins, and often collected for its value.

• Platinum Considered precious for its uses in jewelry, dentistry, weaponry, coins, and is commonly collected for its value.

• Palladium Considered precious for its uses in jewelry (white gold), electronics, and catalytic converters, as well as in coins and commonly collected for its value.

Most commonly, if you’re looking to purchase precious metals such as gold or silver, you’ll find them in a form known as bullion. This is the bulk form of a precious metal. Bullion comes in a few different shapes and sizes, ingots, bars, and coins. 

When they are in coin form, such as the United States Mint’s American Eagle series, or Canada’s Maple Leaf coins they will have a denomination on each coin, and are generally traded on commodity markets and are valued by their mass and their purity rather than for the face-value that is on the coin.