Platinum as an Investment?

[Newmba]

they're right, gold is good because it's easy to trade. Platinum or whatever other rare metal isn't a good investment only because it's worth a lot and its price inflates over time, it has to be easy to manage and trade to be a good deal

[quadriple7]

...

Gold and silver are both very well known for being suitable for as investments.  Yet, there are some platinum bullion coins (Canada, Australia and Austria now mint them, the USA used to). available.

Platinum is considered "the third precious metal", Russia even minted Three Rubles and Six Rubles coins in the 1800s for circulation (they are collectors items now and very expensive).

I am curious to hear community views on Pt as an investment.

Some perspective on precious metals:

1)  Gold is almost exclusively used as a Store of Value (jewelry too), and has been for 5000 + years.  Only small amounts used in industry.

2)  Silver (if I understand correctly) is about half industrial use and half as jewelry and for HODLing & investment.

3)  I do not have the breakdown of Pt re use in industry vs. investment, but Pt is used as a catalyst, both in cars and chemical plants.

*   *   *

Unfortunately, American Platinum Eagles (now out of production, maybe they'll make them again) are priced extremely high, currently selling  around a 25%  or higher premium to metal value (apmex.com).  Australian Pt Platypus and Canadian Pt Maple sell for some $90 over spot (so around 10%).  I believe the high premiums are because Pt is relatively ILLIQUID vs. gold and silver (although I have seen that US Silver Eagles sell for some 20% + premium too, other silver "rounds" can be had for 5% over spot).

EDIT: Platinum coins (Maple and Austrian) are currently available at providentmetals.com, yes, you can pay with Bitcoin.   

well platinum investment may work, just i am not so sure, because we invested in gold and even silver for long time now and we know it pretty well while investing to platinum would be new thing and we can't know it's price falls/rises very well

[Fortify]

I've always stuck with Gold and Silver so far, but it sounds like a decent idea to branch out into Platinum now. Are there any platinum coins made by a major mint, or is it to better to buy it in bar form if you're going for large physical volume?

[jaysabi]

Where does the value from platinum come from, it's rarity or its utility?

[markj113]

Where does the value from platinum come from, it's rarity or its utility?

Both, rarer than gold and unique properties as a catalyst.

Platinum has priced higher than gold for a long period but has recently started trading lower than gold per oz.

Could be a good time to speculate on a small amount.

[jaysabi]

Where does the value from platinum come from, it's rarity or its utility?

Both, rarer than gold and unique properties as a catalyst.

Platinum has priced higher than gold for a long period but has recently started trading lower than gold per oz.

Could be a good time to speculate on a small amount.

Someone mentioned artificial substitutes, so the utility factor could be fleeting or temporary. I wouldn't go too big on the speculation. Gold is more reliable, but even gold over very long arcs basically tracks inflation, so it's not really increasing wealth but maintaining. Speculating on any metal is just like gambling in the short term, and just maintaining wealth in the long term. The stock market is still the best place to actually increase wealth. (In my opinion, obviously, but there's plenty of data to support it.)

[markj113]

Where does the value from platinum come from, it's rarity or its utility?

Both, rarer than gold and unique properties as a catalyst.

Platinum has priced higher than gold for a long period but has recently started trading lower than gold per oz.

Could be a good time to speculate on a small amount.

Someone mentioned artificial substitutes, so the utility factor could be fleeting or temporary. I wouldn't go too big on the speculation. Gold is more reliable, but even gold over very long arcs basically tracks inflation, so it's not really increasing wealth but maintaining. Speculating on any metal is just like gambling in the short term, and just maintaining wealth in the long term. The stock market is still the best place to actually increase wealth. (In my opinion, obviously, but there's plenty of data to support it.)

Yes it was me

They are in development but not there yet.

Short term I would consider a little platinum.

[OROBTC]

I've always stuck with Gold and Silver so far, but it sounds like a decent idea to branch out into Platinum now. Are there any platinum coins made by a major mint, or is it to better to buy it in bar form if you're going for large physical volume?

The US used to make Platinum Eagles, they can be found at apmex.com.  The main problem with them is the very high premiums (over $200 / oz over spot).

More easily available are the platinum 1 oz coins from Australia (Platypus and Kangaroo), Canada (Maple Leaf) and even Austria (Philharmonic).  All of these can be found at apmex as well.  providentmetals.com currently offers the Canadian and Austrian.  

Provident offers the option of buying with Bitcoin.  

*   *   *

Platinum seems to have one other price dynamic of interest.  Its use for industry will go up in GOOD economic times (as with silver), but it looks like investment demand (jewelry as well) for Pt is fairly constant.

This means, IMO, that unlike Au and Ag, that Pt is for optimists!  Gold & silver are well known for being SHTF investments, while increased Pt usage (eg, by China to clean up their air pollution) would likely happen when economic activity increases.  So, Pt would be a slightly different "vector" (diversification) in the precious metals space.

[Kingno.1]

I have never thought of platinum as an investment.
I have always invested in either bitcoin or share market or property or gold and sometimes in gold also.
But this platinum idea seems good to me. I will surely try.

[jaysabi]

Where does the value from platinum come from, it's rarity or its utility?

Both, rarer than gold and unique properties as a catalyst.

Platinum has priced higher than gold for a long period but has recently started trading lower than gold per oz.

Could be a good time to speculate on a small amount.

Someone mentioned artificial substitutes, so the utility factor could be fleeting or temporary. I wouldn't go too big on the speculation. Gold is more reliable, but even gold over very long arcs basically tracks inflation, so it's not really increasing wealth but maintaining. Speculating on any metal is just like gambling in the short term, and just maintaining wealth in the long term. The stock market is still the best place to actually increase wealth. (In my opinion, obviously, but there's plenty of data to support it.)

Yes it was me

They are in development but not there yet.

Short term I would consider a little platinum.

Haha, ok. I wasn't paying attention to who was saying what, just read through the thread quickly. I actually thought your response was from the OP.

Are platinum uses industrial or tech, and what kind of substitutes are in development? Is it a synthetic replacement, or are they adopting the processes that currently use platinum to be able to use a different existing material?

[The Sceptical Chymist]

I have to say, some of the platinum eagle coins are absolutely stunning and it certainly is a precious metal.  Don't know about its long term usefulness but if I had the money I'd buy some.  Those palladium ballet coins Russia put out some years ago are nice too.  That's knd of an oddball metal.

[OROBTC]

I have to say, some of the platinum eagle coins are absolutely stunning and it certainly is a precious metal.  Don't know about its long term usefulness but if I had the money I'd buy some.  Those palladium ballet coins Russia put out some years ago are nice too.  That's knd of an oddball metal.

Yes, palladium is an oddball metal with interesting properties.   

It can hold some 900 times its own volume of hydrogen gas.  Palladium is impermeable to all gases EXCEPT hydrogen.  These two properties are unique to Pd as far as I know.  Some observers think that Pd could be very important if hydrogen fuel cell technology becomes big.

Like the other platinum-group metals, it is used as a catalyst in certain applications (Ford was experimenting with using Pd at scale several years ago).  Pd also is the best alloy to make white gold (nickel, the other metal used) is slightly toxic.

[RealPhotoshoper]

I have never thought of platinum as an investment.
I have always invested in either bitcoin or share market or property or gold and sometimes in gold also.
But this platinum idea seems good to me. I will surely try.

yeah,me too,never thought and know about platinum investement,but sound good for investement,and i will start tolooking for information about the price and price fluctuate of this platinum.

[sallymeeh27]

I would consider Platinum as one of the most important even thought Gold is more precious than this. Platinum use in all industries whether car production, construction of buildings and others. They are mainly use everywhere which do attract more sales and money.

[maku]

So guys, do you think it is wise to buy some of these coins from JM Bullion? http://www.jmbullion.com/platinum/platinum-coins/
Great think about this is JM Bullion now accepts bitcoin as payment, so you can directly buy Platinum/Gold/Silver coins for BTC.

[DimensionZ]

Platinum as a store of value is not very popular here, gold and silver are the main precious metals trading at the pawn shops and jewellery stores. Platinum is mostly used in the industry as far as I know. I should do a research to see if I can find some place that is selling it as coins or bullions around here. Thanks for the resourceful thread.

[pereira4]

Personally, I would stick to what's time tested (Gold and Silver) specially in times of uncertainty. Then to experiment with, I cannot think of any other asset that isn't Bitcoin, that could perform insane gains under a financial crisis scenario. It's features are also ideal when you may need to move from a country to another carrying all of your wealth. So don't gamble imo and stick to the king metals + Bitcoin.

[calkob]

I like the sound of investment in Platinum but it is already pretty price if im not wrong.  Silver is a good investment for the smaller investor.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

So guys, do you think it is wise to buy some of these coins from JM Bullion? http://www.jmbullion.com/platinum/platinum-coins/
Great think about this is JM Bullion now accepts bitcoin as payment, so you can directly buy Platinum/Gold/Silver coins for BTC.

If you can afford it, yeah go for it.  I think platinum and the other pt group metals might be more risky but the coins are beautiful.  There's good numismatic value on top of the melt value.

[bitbunnny]

Platinum is good for selling because of its value, if you have some free source of it. But as a long term investment I think the gold is better.