You Use Precious Metals for WHAT?

Nearly every person in the modern world is well aware of at least some uses for the precious metals we have all heard of. A precious metal is any naturally occurring metal, which is valuable (as in, expensive) but not radioactive. It kind of makes sense that plutonium jewelry never quite took off in the open market. Most of us have heard of gold and silver, but there is a third (even more valuable) metal known as platinum. But did you know that in the platinum family, there are its cousins ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, osmium, and iridium? While platinum is the most expensive known non radioactive metal, which occurs naturally, every single one of the precious metals has actual uses beyond being gawked at and admired (depending on whether your mouth stays respectfully closed or gapes open at the sight of the metal). And in some cases, these metals have some down right strange uses.

For instance, not only is gold a lovely metal, in its purest form, it can be molded almost like a type of children’s dough – the present for the plutocratic child who has everything. And of course, gold is one of the best conductors of electricity in the world.

Silver is even more robust in its bizarre uses. As well as being a great conductor, silver is used to back mirrors, and to facilitate certain traditional photography processes. Also, silver is actually used to turn ethylene into ethylene oxide, which is a key step in the process of making polyester (which is useful for more than just leisure suits). And if that were not enough, silver even has antibacterial properties, which lend it usefulness in the realm of bandaging wounds. Silver bars can be a good investment, and is comparatively stable than gold when it comes to price fluctuations.

Platinum, aside from being a great conductor (a common trait among precious metals), is also widely employed to reduce carbon emissions in automobiles.