Platinum coins were first used by the Russians when platinum was discovered in the Urals. They made the first coins as Roubles and sometimes they turn up and are still available in coin collections.

Prior to that Platinum, although known about for many years was used industrially for other purposes such as chemical, glass production and in guns and batteries etc.

Nowadays platinum coins are made by most countries and mints and you can get a wide variety of platinum coins and coin sets.

The Isle of Man, a British Crown Possession, In November of 1983, issued a one ounce platinum bullion coin. This very successful platinum coin encouraged other mints ot issue theirs and now it is possible to get Canadian Platinum Maple Leaf, the Australian Koala and many others.

Platinum is still a limited supply metal The only known areas producing platinum are The Bushveld Complex, which is just north of South Africa’s capital, Pretoria, which produces more than two thirds of the annual platinum supply and the Noril’sk-Talnakh region in the extreme north of Siberia in Russia which supplies most of the rest.
Russia, in fact, is considered to be the only nation with significant stocks of platinum and many experts believe that these stocks may be running out.

Now the American Platinum Eagle is available and very popular with collectors and investors. The one ounce platinum coin has the highest face value of any coin of one hundred dollars but would be worth around 1200USD at the time of writing.

Platinum has come a long way over the past couple of hundred years and is very likely to go alot further. Any investment in platinum coins is sure to be a worthwhile one!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 26th, 2006 at 5:47 pm.