Posts Tagged ‘Platinum’
Platinum
In Europe we know Platinum just from a few hundred years, since the conquest of America by the Spaniards in the 16th century.
In South America, the natives mined and manufacture objects’s Platinum from thousands of year.
Initially, Platinum was considered a parasitic metal, this was present the American South gold mines, and it was difficult to separate it from the gold.
Impossible to merge with the techniques of the time, Platinum had no value or use until 1751, when it was recognized as a new element of incredible property: more heavy than gold, impossible to oxidize, and 30 times more scarce than gold.
Such chemical resistance spurred its use in the manufacture of scientific equipment throughout the 18th century.
Tiffany platinum wedding ring
Gradually, the Platinum became interested jewelers, as Marc Janety, Royal Jeweler of Louis XVI, and Pierre Chabaneu, supplier of jewelry for the Spanish Court. Started to use Platinum in the manufacture of buttons, chains of watches and other accessories.
Since the second half of the 19th century, the use of Platinum as a noble metal for jewelry became more common.
It is now the favorite metal for mounting diamonds, being their widespread use in rings of commitments.
Platinum should cost much more than gold (is 30 times more low), but gold and Platinum prices are not so far. The reason is that Platinum has so much industrial uses than gold, which main use is still the jewelry and the minting of coins, which does not cause excessive shortage in the market.
White Gold Jewelries
White gold is gold that has undergone a process of bleaching. Bleaching process is carried out by involving chemical reactions and also changes the structure of atoms. Process of whitening or bleaching is known in the English language is usually use nickel as a material mixed because it was considered cheaper and the results would be assessed close to platinum. You need to know that all types of metallic silver-gray except for gold and copper.
White gold has become a trend since the 1920s as a substitute for platinum, because platinum is relatively expensive and difficult to be processed and requires a higher temperature than gold to process.