Russia, 1827: Platinum Prices Quoted in Roubles & Dollars

The first major Platinum placer discovery in the Urals was in the Summer of 1826; the massive yield arrived by caravan in St. Petersbourg in August 1828 and March 1829.

1827: From a ms. completed by August, 1828.

Citation: St. Petersburgh: A journal of travels to and from that capital ..., Vol. 2 ; Augustus Bozzi Granville (1828)


Goroblagodat

Citation: Annales des mines; Annales des mines, France () p.74

1827: 1 Troy Oz. Platinum (refined; ingot @ StPb) = 36.46 руб = (USD$ 7.29)

At the time the experiment began, Russia had three metallic currencies: Gold, Silver and Copper. In addition, Banco Assignats and a Paper 'Silver Rouble' Note.

In 1827, the exchange in USD$ was as follows:
1 руб = $0.20 (Assignat) $0.71 (Silver Rouble) and $0.75 (Gold Rouble)

Rarely seen, Gold & "Silver Roubles" were not used except in nominal coversions to Assignats or Paper Roubles.

1 руб (Assignat) = £ 0.430 ; 1 руб (Assignat) = USD$ 0.20 ; 1 руб (Assignat) = Fr. 1.07


Citation: The mercantile arithmetic, adapted to the commerce of the United States, in ... By Michael Walsh (1828) p.188


Late 1827-28:


Referencing Russian Rouble price and converting to home currencies, contemporaries and historians alike err by calculating Silver Rouble ($0.71) rather than Assignat Rouble ($0.21) Sold in Assignati, platina was considerably cheaper.

Whereas the Russian Mint fixed Platinum at 5.25x the POS during this monetization period 1825-44, this miscalculation grossly exaggerates the Russian Mint price, implying Platinum was greater than the POG. Russian sources further explain one aspect of this fallacy: Platinum could not greatly exceed POG, because Gold as a plentiful substitute metal will inevitably diminish Platinum's higher price.

Citation: Bulletin de statistique et de législation comparée, Vol. 56, By France. Ministère des finances, 1904. pp. 644-6.


This forex error is evident in the 1828 Philadelphia source below; miscalculated at Silver Rouble rates, crude ore would have cost about 12x the POS. Trade in Russian Platinum would have been virtually ruinous for any merchant paying the imagined $15.53 per Troy Ounce of platina or $ 26.44/oz. for refined Platinum (cited article, below.) At руб 9.028 (Silver) per Troy Ounce coined, Platinum Roubles would have been a cheaper source of metal than ingot.

There was also a developed black market in Russia: its unrecorded data probably represented the true price for Pt.

By contrast, the assignat exchange rates are much closer global prices of that period:


1827: 1 Troy Ounce platina (ore @ St. Petersburg) = 21.87 руб = (USD$ 4.37)
1827: 1 Troy Oz. Platinum (refined unmfg @ StPb) = 29.16 руб = (USD$ 5.83)

1827: 1 Troy Oz. Platinum (refined; ingot @ StPb) = 36.46 руб = (USD$ 7.29)

There is also the discrepancy between monetized & intrisic value:

1827: 1 Troy Ounce Platinum (monetized) = 9.028 руб

1827: 1 Troy Ounce Platinum (monetized) = Fr. 9.66
1827: 1 Troy Ounce Platinum (monetized) = USD$ 6.81

1827: 1 Troy Ounce Platinum (intrinsic value) = Fr 36.11

Reported to US audiences in January, 1827, this was "news" from English journals in the previous October (1826) : 'common-knowledge' was five months' late.

Reporting news from the Summer of 1827:
Citation: Journal of the Franklin Institute Vol. 6 (1828), p.249

1827:

A French study in 1846, perhaps using later conversion rates and platinum rates, cited the 1828 Russian platina price at Fr. 15.55/oz. That appears to be closer to the market rate at which the ore might have been sold.

Citation: Répertoire général d'économie politique anbcienne et moderne, Volume 1 By Alexander Sandelin(1846), p.476

Count Cancrin cites the Paris Refined Pt Price in relation to the proposed Colombian coinage rate at 6 Piastres per Castillan Onza (6.44 Zolotnik, or 0.9695 English Troy Ounce.) 

The Silver USD$ was based on the Piastre, traded at par with it, but the Spanish Coin also had a premium against US paper currency. 

Assuming the Onza @ 6.44 Zolotnik, 1 Ozt = 7.2915 Zolotnik, and if 1 Silver руб = USD$ 0.7547


1826/7: 1 Ozt. Platinum (Refined, Colombian Rate) = $ 6.79 ( Silver руб 9.) 

1826/7: 1 Ozt. Platinum (Col., Ref.; USD$ Rate) = $ 6.963 
 

1827: 1 Troy Ounce Platinum (intrinsic value) = 

I've assembled various data about the value of platina from France and England, from which you want to include here, that on average an Unze of raw platina costs at least Fr. 8, against Fr. 32/Unze for completely purified.

Were it certainly known, it would still little help to determine the currency standard, because with increased amount of metal the value must fall; but I also think one must not be too anxious for that, because once adopted the currency standard precisely fixes platina's worth itself to a certain extent, or at least is gradually expected to lead to a closer determination.

From the Order of 29 April 1826, in Colombia, it is clear major difficulties prevail due to the processing of Platinum itself. The coin is a Castilian Onza platinum (by the Onza calculated here 6.744 Zolotnik, or otherwise correctly) assumed to be woprth six hard Piastres (Silver Dollars.) This abstraction appears from the sales value in Paris and would, in our calculation, put the ratio for pure Silver at 5.067 to 1, or close to 5 to 1.

Coincident with the high production of valuable Platinum, 1826 & 1827 were two of the more stable years of the St. Petersbourg money-market.