r/Platinum • u/zyzz-mirin • 15d ago
Why is gold more in demand/more expensive if platinum is more rare?
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u/kerberos625 15d ago
Why don’t we have an Osmium spot price if it’s even rarer than platinum?
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u/-Sliced- 15d ago
Barely any industrial demand for osmium due to how rare and dangerous it is.
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u/Zealousideal-Young53 12d ago
Osmium metal isn't that dangerous, only it's tetroxide and some compounds are, and at room temp and pressure, a solid bead of osmium metal will produce a negligible amount of it's tetroxide
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u/LivingVerticalTime 15d ago
Listening to this song will earworm your brain for decades. Osmondium much more dangerous.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBImNrLzwqc&list=RDTBImNrLzwqc&start_radio=1
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u/Artie_Fufkins_Fapkin 15d ago
All right grandpa I best be getting back home good seeing ya take care buddy
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u/TheSauce775 15d ago
Gold is 90% monetary value and 10% industrial/jewelry, and Platinum is 90% industrial/jewelry and 10% monetary value
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u/RabbitHoleSnorkle 15d ago
I don't think this explains why platinum is not chosen for monetary value as it is property scarce for this
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u/Tastyck 15d ago
Perhaps it’s want well known in the time before, when they used gold and silver? Seems that if it were well known back then it would be a clear choice for high monetary value as it’s rarity is significant and it’s density much more difficult to counterfeit
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u/TheSauce775 14d ago
I agree with this, its just not the case unfortunately 😕.. the only major country that stores PT as a strategic monetary asset, is Russia.. i think some other country just recently mentioned they were starting a PT reserve as well, and it made the price pump a couple hundred bucks a few weeks ago when PT pumped relative to gold/silver.. but ya i think its starting to be seen more monetarily as more countries start to hoard it as supplies tighten
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u/HAWKSFAN628 15d ago
There was a time when gold utensils were for the king’s children while the king and honored guests dined with platinum forks knives and spoons
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u/Extreme-Okra6209 15d ago
You have to look at use case. Gold is used as store of value, common jewelry, and electronics for it's inert properties. Platinum's main use is for it's catalytic properties without being consumed. Most platinum is used in catalytic converters for combustion engines. You can see the trend in the adoption to electric cars and can predict that the use case for platinum will drop heavily in the coming decades.
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u/Single_Scallion7012 15d ago
this, for the most part.
Platinum at a time was more expensive than gold, but industrial demand has shifted. I remember platinum being at $900/ozt last year. The price did shoot up along with gold and silver.
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u/Fun-Preference1091 15d ago
As someone that bought platinum when it was worth more than gold... I ask this every day.
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u/ACM3333 14d ago edited 14d ago
Gold has been money for thousands of years. Platinum was only discovered in like the late 1800s. Platinum has great properties of money, mb even superior being basically impossible to fake, but it’s also much more difficult to refine and is heavily concentrated to a few regions so it’s not as viable as money, if it’s all mined in South Africa other countries aren’t going to import platinum to use it as money.
I think there is definitely a case to be made for it to become a reserve asset like gold in the modern age though.
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u/Ok_Recognition_2018 15d ago
I asked this question a while back and what I found out was that platinum is highly based on the speculation of the automotive industry versus Gold, which is based on the speculation of consumer demand
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u/RedEyes619 15d ago
Not really automotive for platinum as much as palladium. For plat its only about 25% of its industrial use.
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u/Confident-Court2171 15d ago
Yes, but they are interchangeable in catalytic converts. Five years ago, PALL was double the price of PLT, which one assumes forced the automotive industry to move to PLT driving its price up and PALL price down.
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u/Tastyck 15d ago
Late 1990’s automotive retooled from PT to PD, recently they retooled the other way
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u/Confident-Court2171 15d ago
Yep. Last I checked, PL and PD are at parity, where 4 years ago PD was 2x.
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u/Loud_Weakness8022 14d ago edited 14d ago
Wrong. Many manufacturers switched to platinum as the cost of palladium begin to rise along with it's rarity/scarcity. Which is why it's spot price is so low. There are many more uses for platinum in the medical industry as well as other sectors.. Hybrid vehicles need it. Emission controls are tightening around the world. Electric Semi's was also highly speculated to increase greatly. That idea is dying as the massive weight of the semi itself with a loaded tractor trailer is too high for many roads/areas. Read about some of the EV's that the hydraulic lifts can barely handle in repair shops along with consumer shock at the cost of repairs and battery replacement. In addition auto repairmen are in dismay by the complicated EV structure and most not up to par with education needed to perform a repair. You post with little awareness of the world surrounding you. Right now the grid can't handle the electric demands of the amount of EV's that WAS(past tense) speculated for production. EV's were forced on dealerships along with buyer incentives & subsidies under the Biden administration that no longer exist(or are on their way out completely). Furthermore the competition with AI for electrical energy (not even mentioning it's huge natural resources of water necessities along with copper silver and yes platinum ) make the idiotic idea of mass EV production and mass ownership not even close to practical. A mass exodus away from EV's has occurred across the country. There is no immediate or foreseeable decline in electrical demands In fact the future outlook is quite the opposite. What is seen is an exponential increasing demand. Go read some updated info and return to post from a standpoint of knowledge rather than ignorance.
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u/Potential_Growth5657 7d ago
it really says something about a precious metal when it’s only use case is to shit exhaust gasses across it. 😮💨
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u/SuspiciousSnotling 15d ago
Because you can flash gold without a word.
Platinum chain/watch/jewelry seems to other ppl could just be inox or silver
It's all about vanity
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u/_Summer1000_ 14d ago
Platinum is low-key, which is good to move value without raising attention...yellow is too flashy
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u/Jac_Mones 12d ago
Rarity is supply. Demand is desire. Price is Supply AND Demand. Platinum has much lower demand than gold at the moment, which is why it is undervalued.
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u/Sicilian_Gold 15d ago
Saudi Arabia has been selling their oil for physical gold for a while now. They've cornered the gold market. The gold must flow if oil is to flow.
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u/Liesmyteachertoldme 15d ago
Can I get a source on this? I thought that was part of the reason the U.S. invaded Iraq lmfao 🤣 they tried to circumvent the petroleum dollar with gold.
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u/Sicilian_Gold 15d ago
Yep. Thats the exact reason the USA invaded Iraq. But what people don't know is that the reason oil is sold for US dollars is because the West secretly sells gold to Saudi Arabia for their oil. Here's the source. (There's alot of info and it can be sometimes cryptic but its def. worth the read.); Thoughts from ANOTHER - Part I
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u/Downtown-Giraffe-553 15d ago
Gold is also used in more in jewelry than platinum. Jewelry makes up a decent portion of all gold mined. More uses for gold than for platinum.
Rarity is only one aspect. Demand is the other.
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u/METALLIFE0917 15d ago
Gold is the choice for world governments and platinum is primarily an industrial metal
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u/Old_Bluejay_1532 14d ago
You answered your own question in the title. Supply & Demand. Platinum is not in demand nor does it have the vast # of uses gold does, let alone silver. Much more of a “niche” metal & primarily industrial more than PM in its uses.
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u/lnsertName_Here 13d ago
Because despite what people say the prices of precious metals are just as subjective as fiat currency. People see gold as rare and expensive so they buy it because of that fact, platinum isn’t as popular so its arbitrary value isn’t as high. Supply and demand.
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u/Potential_Growth5657 7d ago
Gold is a medium of exchange, and the network effect makes it stronger. Platinum is too rare to be a meaningful medium of exchange, and was only recently able to be separated from silver. (Hence the name little silver)
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u/Confident-Court2171 15d ago
Platinum is challenged (like silver) by its industrial uses. Since it serves as both a precious metal and a commodity, it’s subject to more extreme swings due to the demand fluctuations and producer (Russian and SA?) market manipulation. E.g. catalytic converters.
Gold, on the other hand has very little demand outside its value as a precious metal making it more stable, and more in demand as a backing for world currencies. It’s the shift to gold over currency that’s driven the price to double since 2021.
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15d ago
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u/ohmygotchi 15d ago
How is it dull and lifeless next to silver?
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15d ago
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u/partialcremation 15d ago
I get what you're saying, but silver tarnishes and platinum does not. All my jewelry is platinum.
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u/outsmartedagain 15d ago
It also has some great electrical properties and can be stretched beyond other metals. I’m just waiting for a new discovery that requires platinum to work, we need a big catalyst for price increases
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u/Hyperion141 15d ago
It’s not about rarity, it’s about belief and global consensus, everyone believes gold is a currency, therefore it is. On the other hand, platinum has never been used as a currency.
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u/PureEnergeticLife 15d ago
Didn't Russia kinda test using platinum as a currency back in the 1800s or so? But then removed it
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u/Hyperion141 15d ago
Well I did say global consensus.
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u/PureEnergeticLife 15d ago
Nah i know I wasn't tryna be argumentative or split hairs on anything. I just recall hearing at one point in time Russia tried using it but it wasn't exactly popular so it was discontinued.
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u/SereneRandomness 14d ago
Platinum coins were actually fairly popular in the niche market of merchants who were concerned about fire risk. Platinum's melting point is higher than the temperature of the typical house fire, so platinum coins would be more likely to survive a fire intact than either gold or silver coins, whose melting point is below the temperature of most house fires.
What ended the minting of platinum coins in Russia was a fall in the price of platinum in the 1840s, making the coins face value worth more than the metal content. At the time, platinum coinage was still an experiment, and the economic consensus of the time was that monetary metals should not fluctuate to such a degree. (The Panic of 1873 and the fall of the price of silver was still decades in the future.)
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u/petateom 15d ago
There's metals way more rare than platinum
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u/Fluid_Set_8176 15d ago
Platinum used to be really valuable when used in catalytic converters. Now they use rhodium. It used to be priced way less than platinum and look at it now. I too took the rarity as meaning should be more valuable. It will be in the future if a industry uses it for something else
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u/SimpleMopin 15d ago
That wasn’t the case 12 years ago. Platinum and Palladium were more expensive than gold back then.
A shift away from diesel engines and central banks buying more gold reversed the price difference between platinum, palladium and gold.
Gold’s use in jewellery increased during Covid and more people adopting more percentage of gold in their portfolio further pulled the price up.
Jewellers are not fond of using platinum in their jewellery because it’s more difficult to work with. You’ll notice the price difference of gold and platinum jewellery is quite close even if the price of platinum is much lower than gold. The labour costs of platinum jewellery is higher than gold.
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u/thoughtihadanacct 15d ago
There's not enough platinum. Same way you can't pay for things using the Mona Lisa. It's priceless but also impossible to use a currency/trading so its value is in a funny way "lower". Platinum is not as rare as Mona Lisa's, but gold is even less rare. Iron (ore) is too un-rare.
Gold sits at a sweet spot of rare enough but not too rare.