When first panning for gold, no one realized how valuable the silver looking specks they occasionally found actually were. Platinum comes from the word “platina,” or “little silver.” When it was found, it was thrown back. Platinum would be discarded for thousands of years, until science had been refined enough to actually analyze this material thought to be silver. The discovery led to a new noble metal: platinum. It is the only noble metal which is both stronger than, and occurs less in nature than, gold. This means that platinum is actually more valuable than gold. By the 1800s, platinum was made into all kinds of jewelry, including platinu...
VIEW FULL ENTRY