Colombia, 1803

In October 1801, the Spanish Minister of the Royal Treasury ordered the Viceroy of Santa Fe to send all the platina that had accumulated during the war (1796-1801.)  In Chocó, the arrival of the very famous scientist Alexander von Humboldt- making numerous inquiries about platina - focused further attention on the metal.

In the Platinum Study (c.1803), the extraordinarily well-informed Citara magistrate Don Ventra Salzas Malibran summarized several important points known to elites and ore producers/traders in the Chocó region.

1) From the outset of Royal decrees to collect platina in 1778, locals began to discuss then horde the ore.  Creoles and Europeans alike began to think of platina's value, even as a ratio to Gold or Silver. And the traders' money was the strongest incentive.

2) The history and industry French manufacture of Platinum was known; the Paris retail price of refined metal was likely surmised or approximately known.

3) An extensive illicit trade existed between Jamaica and Carthagena, dodging the 32.5% duty on legal trade ; various official measures may or may not have disrupted the contraband networks for platina S$6. per libra. 

In contrast to von Humboldt's high-end specimen-price  ("Chocó spot-price"), Don Ventra Salzas Malibran reported in a Gold Study (1804) declining platina yield but a lower commercial Cartagena spot-price ("8-6 Piastres per libra").  The Cartagena platina price apparently fell 25%, 1800-1803.

c.1801: 1 Troy Ounce platina (Cartagena, illicit export) = S$ 0.541
1803: 1 Troy Oz. platina (Cartagena: Contraband, 75%) = S$ 0.406 (£ 0.1065)
1803: 1 Troy Oz. Pt (Cartagena: Intrinsic) = S$ 0.541 (£ 0.142)

Periodically, platina auctions (at discount prices) at English ports may have threatened the profitability of the illicit Caribbean merchant trade.  In 1804, the English Navy seized another large shipment of platina from the Spanish; it remains unknown if retail platina prices (small lots) in the UK fluctuated according to sudden oversupply.  If not, presumably, an informal cartel quietly managed ore prices.

1804: 1 Troy Oz platina (UK quasi-retail) = £ 0.2468 (S$ 0.726)
1804-09: 1 Troy Oz. platina (Cartagena) ~ S$ 0.406 (Fr. 2.03; £ 0.07275)

(Cartagena wholesale prices was about 1s., 5d. per ozt.; London Price 3.4x higher, Paris~4.4x.)

Citation: Estudio sobre las minas de oro y plata de Colombia, Vicente Restrepo (Marzo de 1884)p.106

1804 - 1809:

Citation: Travels in the Republic of Colombia: in the years 1822 and 1823 By Gaspard Théodore Mollien (comte de) (1824) p.454

The Spanish Dollar was worth as little as  £ 0.1792 in the UK, but in the Americas the Pound was weaker : S$ 1. ~£ 0.225

News from the Americas to Madrid took 10 weeks.

Peru, c.1792

Where an Ounce of platina was worth 0.7 Ozt Fine Ag in Guayaquil, (purportedly!) 1.4 Ozt Fine Ag in Lima (1788) and 1.138 Ozt Fine Ag in Paris (1791) : the European market price suggests a glut, whereas the colonial price suggests inflationary mis-pricing.

1787: 1 Troy Ounce platina (Guayaquil: Bulk) = S$ 0.54091 (~£0.1217)
1787: 1 Troy Oz. platina (Peru: Mkt) ~ S$ 1.08 (~£0.2434)

1791: 1 Troy Oz. platina (Paris: Bulk) = L.T. 8.13 

Price of Silver in Peru, 1791-3:

Where 1 Marco (= 7.40208333 English Troy Oz.) Fine Ag was paid at S$ 8.67279

1791: 1 Troy Ounce Silver (Peru: intrinsic) = S$ 1.1717 (£0.21)
1791: 1 Troy Oz. Silver (Spain: intrinsic) = S$ 1.179 (£0.2113)
1791: 1 Troy Oz. Silver (UK, Mint Rate) = £0.25833
1791: 1 Troy Oz. Silver (UK, Mkt) = £0.283784

Citation: Travels from Buenos Ayres, by Potosi, to Lima: With Notes...  Anton Zacharias Helms

Price of Quicksilver in Peru, 1791-3:

1791: 1 Troy Ounce Silver (Colombia: intrinsic) = S$ 1.1717

Citation: Travels from Buenos Ayres, by Potosi, to Lima: With Notes by the ... Anton Zacharias Helms

Where French stocking sold in France for 6 L.T. (0.84 Fine Ag) and 6 Piastres (4.6367 Fine Ag), imported French goods sold retail 5.52x higher in Peru.

1791-3:

European imports, 1760-1790:

Citation: Travels from Buenos Ayres, by Potosi, to Lima: With Notes by the ... Anton Zacharias Helms

Luis Fermin Capitin Vallvey (The Transport of Platina to Spain in the Late Eighteenth Century) mentions Casa de Platina payment for one odd lot, higher than typical Crown expense but half the South American market-rate in Peru.  As a commodity with poor demand and limited utility, platina was still worth less than Silver in Spanish ports.

Where Rs. 27,072 = S$ 3,384 and 423 Libras ~ 6,256.2 Ozt, or @ S$ 8./Libra

1787: 1 Troy Ounce platina (Spain: off-mkt?) = S$ 0.54091 (~£0.1217)
1787: 1 Troy Oz. platina (Peru: mkt) ~ S$ 1.08 (~£0.2434)

1788: 1 Troy Oz. Silver (UK, .999 Mkt) = £0.2904 ; 1 Troy Oz. Silver (S$ .999) = £0.2941

"This platina arrived on December 7th, 1787, and payment was made eight months later. In the “Note of expenses incurred in founding the Royal Platina Plant” payment is recorded of “twenty-seven thousand seventy-two Reals which on August 9th, 1788 were released to the proxy representing Bernardo Roca, resident of Guayaquil in payment for 423 Libras of platina” (26). This amounts to a price of 64 Reales per Libra before expenses, but if Bernardo Roca had sold the platina in Lima he could have received double the amount of money!"

	Year of				Port of
Shipment	arrival	Amount	Kgs	Ship	arrival
1	1767	1 @ 22 Libra	21.62	-	Cadiz
2	1784	12,937 Castellano	59.51	-	Cadiz
3	1787	1 @17 Li	19.32	-	-
4	1787	6 @ 4 Li, 8 Onza	70.94	-	-
5	1787	69 Li 14 On	32.14	F. El Pajaro	Cadiz
6	1787	16 @ 23 Li	194.58	F. La Posta de America	Cadiz
7	1789	122 @ 15 Li 9 On	1310.16	-	-
8	1790	4543 Ca	20.9	B. El Farnoso Sevillano	-
9	1791	45 @ 6 Li	520.26	F. El Riojano	Cadiz
10	1791	962 Ca	4.42	F. El Riojano	Cadiz
11	1791	100 Li 14 On	46.4	P. N. S. Carmen	Cadiz
12	1795	146 Li 9 On	67.3	V. San Carlos	Cadiz
13	1802	2267 Ca 112 Tom.	10.43	F. Sta. Sabina	Cadiz
14	1802	95 314 Li	44.04	F. Sta. Sabina	Cadiz
15	1802	493 Li 9 On	227.04	F. Flor del Paraiso	Cadiz
16	1803	22 Li	10.12	F. Sta. Sabina	Vigo
17	1804	11@- 171b15o 7 0	134.54	B. El Serrano	Cadiz
18	1805	1141b 1 4 0 ~ 5 0 ~	52.77	-	Corunna

"A substantially different figure for the total amount of platina sent to Madrid has been reported by Chaston (18). He suggested that the quantity of crude platina which arrived in Madrid between 1786 and 1808 may have averaged 14,000 to 18,000 Troy oz per year - adding up to perhaps one-third of a million ounces (9560 to 12,320 kg) over the twenty-two year period. This amount is significantly larger than that reported here, although it must be acknowledged that smuggling could account for at least some of the difference between Chaston’s figure and my account of legal commerce."

Chaston (1980) vastly over-estimated the production of refined Platinum in Europe - in fact, crude platina (at 70% purity) landed in Europe would have been that much higher, ~622 - 801 kgs per year.  The total platina export of 1804, however, is well within that range.

"The quantity of malleable platinum turned out over the 22 years mayhave averaged 14,000 to 18,000 oz Troy per year-say one third of a million ounces in all."

A more reasonable estimate follows : the Spanish Mints likely gathered an average of 50-100 kgs of platina per year and European contraband traders 2 -4x that amount: a high estimate of the total platina exported was closer to 85 - 200 kgs, annually.   Broadly speaking, the production and price of platina should simply have followed Gold, by years and seasons and trade access to Carthagena/Guayaquil.

The 1788 price paid is identical to the insupportable high (specimen) "spot-price" cited by von Humboldt in 1801, although we might assume the price at Carthagena (as at Lima) was typically double the Source-Spot.  In Choco, bulk spot-prices to contraband traders were conceivably a third higher than the government price, most of the time.

UK, 1797: Platina

For platina statistics in the 18th Century and Bibliography, see PLATINA ESPAÑOLA PARA EUROPA EN EL SIGLO XVIII;  LFC VALLVEY - 1994

Vallvey (1994) estimates annual production c.1797 was about 250 kg.

Where "4,000 Ounces" (English Troy Weight) = 24.414 kgs platina, the H.M.S. Raven's capture of "a Spanish prize" was a seizure amounting to nearly 1/10th the annual platina production of New Spain.

4,000 Ozt = 24.414 Kgs = 270.453 Spanish Libras = 303.81 Russian Funt.

From which vessel was the hidden platina recovered? Presumably, a February prize?


August 26, 1797.
Notice is hereby given to the Officers and Company of His Majesty's Sloop Raven, who were actually
on Board on the 3rd of January, 1797, at the Capture of the Spanish Ship N. S. del Caridad; and, on the  5th of January, 1797, at the Capture of the Spanish Brig Santa Natalia, that their respective Shares of the Proceeds of the said Ships and Cargoes will be paid to them on Board the said Sloop, on Tuesday the 5th of September next, and will be recalled on the First Friday in every Month for Three Years from the said Time, at the House of Mess. Maude's, in Downing-Street, Westminster.                                                                        Tho. Maude, Agent

Notice is hereby given to the Officers and Company of Majesty's Sloop Raven, Jacob James, Esq; who were on Board on the 14th of May, 1797, at taking the Rey Carlos Spanish Prize, that they will be paid their Shares of the Hull and Cargo, on the 8th of June, 1798, at the White Lyon, Wych Street; and the Shares unpaid will be recalled there the last Wednesday in the Month for Three Years; and that the Account Sales will be deposited in the High Court of Admiralty, agreeable to Act of Parliament.     

Mess. Marth & Creed, George Purvis, of Norfolk-Street, London, George Field, of Plymouth,
Agents.
 

London, May 12, 1798. 

Reported Sept. 20-1, p.282 in The London Chronicle:   
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015080323671


Steel's Naval Remembrancer: From the Commencement of the War in 1793 to the ...  David Steel p.31

1797: 





   
Citation: The Scots Magazine, Vol.59, p.702

 



Prior to 1797, great masses were reported but unsubstantiated.

Colombia, 1801

Contraband platina came to market at coastal ports like Cartagena and Guayaquil from slaves, creole traders, local capitalists and perhaps even Crown employees at local Spanish Mints.  Where sporadic smuggling from such diverse sources/networks supplied varying quantities (from small lots to bulk) to English merchants, it's impossible to reconstruct with any certainty an accurate chronological price record in Chocó, Cartagena, etc.  

The true average Spot-Price for Colombian platina would be the weighted average of platina transactions over a month or season or year, at the source and Cartagena. This unknown price fluctuated in months, seasons and years on a variety of supply/demand factors.  But in any market, small lots of best-grade ore probably cost more than bulk lots of low-quality, iron-rich, smaller granules.  It is also possible platina was used as currency for town-merchants' goods; this qualitative or intrinsic differential (monetary platina value, in what is now Colombia) remains likewise unknown, without any accurate base price.
 
The famous explorer and scientist Alexander von Humboldt visited Chocó in October 1801 and purchased specimen platina.  His visit to the platina district was well-publicized and reported in Europe by Dutch journals in August 1803.  In 1809 and later manuscripts, von Humboldt's spott-preis was commonly mis-stated as a 'Chocó spot-price' for at least two decades ("in 1823" etc.) thereafter.   

It's worth noting that von Humboldt subsequently (1826) revised this data, recording a much lower spott-preis when demand and local prices were record-high (1825: S$10./libra @ Chocó;  S$16.-20. @ Cartagena) and during the 1825 Price-Spike in Europe.  

“The [1801] price of this metal in grain on the spot is 8 piastres or 40 Francs to the pound, while at Paris [1809?] is it generally 130 to 150 Francs" 

The "piastre" or "dollar" is the globally traded silver coin known locally as the peso fuerte or peso of 8 reals (374.87 English Troy grains, 24.29 grams of Fine Silver.)  For merchants, the Colombian "pound" is the Spanish libra (460 grams = 14.792 English Troy Ounces, close to the standard English Pound avoirdupois) whereas in France a different standard-weight persisted for precious metals, the Poid du Marc (489.5 grams = 15.74 English Troy Ounces.) 

Beyond an obvious weight discrepancy, von Humboldt's comparative price entails certain problematic elements.  The German scientist purchased small amounts of specimen platina at a much higher cost than professional traders actually purchased bulk ore.   Wholesale-, or trader's spot-price at Chocó was an (unknown) average price at which platina was forward-traded by area miners to Cartagena merchants to cover debts, as with Gold dust.  Hypothetically, the Spot-Price Gold-dust was ~25% less than the Mint-price or market-rate at the port; bulk platina may have been discounted more. The true average price is unknown, by Colombian sources (1803) report the stockpiling of platina in Chocó.

Obviously, von Humboldt's spott-preis is too high. How else could British merchants have sold platina at lower prices in Jamaica, or at cost in London?  This is readily understood since platina was sold in London at nearly the same price (in Silver.)  Less than a year earlier Dr. William Hyde Wollaston paid the same rate in bulk to dealers in London.  If British merchants paid von Humboldt's price for small lots, they'd have suffered a ruinous trade-loss, after all expenses (portage, shipping and insurance, bribes, middle-man fees, profit margins, etc.) to European markets.  The price given by von Humboldt was therefore the 'known foreigner money price' for better platina at Cartagena.  

The question remains how to estimate the bulk Spot-Price at Chocó, given various reported numbers in proximate years.  (Incidentally, it's reasonable to surmise that Dr. Wollaston's first lot of platina was Spanish booty seized in the Summer of 1797 and sold at auction in England: that particular lot may have entailed no transatlantic costs whatsoever to any Caribbean British merchants.)  If the following is correct, platina in 1800 was sold at bulk to the English for 1/25th the Price of Fine Gold.

December, 1800: 1 Troy Ounce platina (@ London, bulk) = £ 0.1344 (S$ 0.593)

October, 1801: 1 Troy Ounce platina (specimen rate @ Choco)  = S$ 0.5408
October, 1801: 1 Troy Oz. platina (specimen rate @ Choco)  =  Fr 2.704

1801: 1 Troy Oz. platina (presumed Choco Spot) ~ S$ 0.270 (£ 0.0456)
1801: 1 Troy Oz. platina (Cartagena Mkt) ~ S$ 0.4731  (£ 0.0774)

Furthermore, a time-discrepancy distorts the comparison intended: von Humboldt's 'spottpreis' is from 1801 yet his retail Paris ore price appears to be from 1807-09 (the writing of his ms.) Circa 1805-09, the export price from Cartagena was $S 6./libra on average; average Chocó prices must have been significantly lower, not higher. 

Conflating 'specimen' and retail versus wholesale or import (bulk) prices, it's difficult to presume a stable, range-bound Paris retail price for ore at the same time the Colombian spot-price declined dramatically.  (Incidentally, the Paris platina price appears to have collapsed over 50% around 1811, the year the ms. was first published.)   Against (low) refined French Platinum prices in 1811, von Humboldt's platina prices are suspect, inconclusive.  At a premium of "Spanish Dollars" (Pesos Duro, Plate = and the local weight (not avoirdupois), 'retail' Chocó price is 26% - 31% (one-quarter to one-third) retail Paris price.   

In London (December 1800) William Hyde Wollaston  paid almost the same rate as von Humboldt's alleged Chocó Spot-Price just ten months later.  The English scientist's notebook consistently identifies a much lower English price: bulk prices paid fluctuating 50%, between 1802-11.  Much later, Wollaston also calculated the import mercants' ~100% profit, from 1800-1816; his own platina purchases (after shipping, middlemen profit, other costs, etc.) required lower spot-prices at Chocó for the period in question. 

Tellingly, von Humboldt suggested 25% of the Gold trade was contraband.  It's conceivable the illicit platina trade was higher, but if Wollaston was the major global producer (25%) of refined Platinum, total platina exports should be diminished accordingly.  (By assumption, there wasn't much market demand nor recorded production proving otherwise.) Chaldecott (1983) insists that no one but Wollaston was refining Platinum on a truly commercial scale in the UK.  If so, +85% of British-shipped platina from Jamaica went to Continental consumers, mostly French producers.

 "... as no one else in England at that time was able to emulate Wollaston’s success, the extent of the demand for crude platinum in England was governed almost entirely by the quantities which Wollaston alone required in order to meet the needs of his customers for malleable platinum,whether in ingot or sheet form. Much of the crude platinum used by Wollaston was obtained by John Johnson, a commercial assayer of ores and metals in London, who presumably placed orders on Wollaston’s behalf with merchants in Jamaica(3)."

Although not a well-informed calculation:

a) 8 piastres [1.08*$8.] = USD$ 8.64 at the prevailing premium on Spanish Dollars (S$)

b) 1 Colombian “pound” = 100 castellanos (1 castellano = 71 grains troy) = 7100 grains = 14.792 troy ounces,

The Chocó price 24.25-24.33 gr of 'pure' silver per Spanish Piastre: 

1 troy oz. .999 fine silver = 2.354 - 2.371 troy oz. of Chocó platina, or

(at 86.16% purity) ~ 2.028 - 2.043 troy oz. Platinum (pure ore)

1 troy oz. .999 fine gold = 35.45 - 35.7 troy oz. of Chocó platina

1 troy oz. .999 fine gold = 30.75 - 32. troy oz. Platinum (intrinsic)

1 troy oz. .999 fine gold = 30.54 - 30.76 troy oz. 'pure' Platinum, in ore

@ 7 Piastres

1 Troy Ounce platina (raw ore, in Colombia) ~ $ 0.51
1 Troy Ounce platina (raw ore, in Colombia) ~ £ 0.10

1 Troy Ounce platina (raw ore, in Colombia) ~ Fr. 2.37

@ 6 Piastres

1 Troy Ounce platina (raw ore, in Colombia) ~ $ 0.44
1 Troy Ounce platina (raw ore, in Colombia) ~ £ 0.060

1 Troy Ounce platina (raw ore, in Colombia) ~ Fr. 2.03

Where the marc of Gold (50 castellanos = 7.402 Troy Ounces) was bought at S$ 100. and valued at market, S$ 136.  Auro-platinum was probably treated as a nuisance, if not feared by merchants. The discount was likely in excess of 25%; platinum treated as waste.

1801: 1 Troy Ounce Gold (Colombia: 23 carat) = S$ 13.52
1801: 1 Troy Ounce Gold (Colombia: 10 carat?) = S$ 6.30
1801: 1 Troy Ounce Gold (Colombia: pure) = S$ 15.45

1801: 1 Troy Ounce Gold (Colombia: 21 carat) = S$ 10.14

1801: 1 Troy Ounce Gold (Colombia: pure) = S$ 11.59

1801: 1 Troy Ounce Gold (Value: pure) = S$ 18.39
1801: 1 Troy Ounce Silver (Colombia: intrinsic) = S$ 1.15

1801: 1 Troy Ounce Silver (Colombia: ore, intrinsic) = S$ 0.97

Citation: A study of the gold & silver mines of Colombia ; Vicente Restrepo

1798 FA Spanish 8 Escudos. Madrid mint. Contemporary counterfeit in platinum. EF-40. 414.2 Grains Troy, 26.83 g.

  Boussingault (repeating von Humboldt) presumed one-third the Colombian Gold yield was exported as contraband.

Citation: Mémoires de J.-B. Boussingault, Vol. 5 ; Jean Baptiste Boussingault, Alexander von Humboldt

Citation: Estudio sobre las minas de oro y plata de Colombia ; Vicente Restrepo p.24

1814: Theoretical intrinsic value does not precisely reflect market rates, where real money traded at a premium in some periods.  In the USA throughout the period 1800 -1815, the peso fuerte was worth at least a Dollar.

The French Franc appears consistently  Fr. 5 = S$ 1.

Citation: An exposition of the commerce of Spanish America, with some observations ...   Manuel Torres (1817)

Citation: The British Critic, Vol. 40 ; Sept 1812 p.275

From his correspondence, von Humboldt was evidently in Chocó during October 1801.

Added in 1826 Edition: 1825 information



1807: The Specimen-Platinum purchased by von Humboldt in 1801 was so noteworthy to be cited in definitive English-language geographies. (Also, Pinkerton's 1804 French edition lacked this factoid.)

Citation: Modern Geography: A Description of the Empires, Kingdoms, States ..., Vol. 3 ; John Pinkerton (1807)


1824:
Citation: Journal of a residence and travels in Colombia, Vol.2 ; Charles Stuart Cochrane

Purity of platina (1905):



In 1824, free negros were paid 6 reals (S$ 0.75; £ 0.1625) per day to pan for Gold & platina; presumably, 156 reals per month (S$ 19.50).

Estimated daily wage  was ~ S$ 0.33 - 0.40 for these porters.

Colombian Weights:
1 castellano = 0.1479 English Troy Ounces
1 marco (50 castellanos; 400 tomines) = 7.3958 English Troy Ounces

Russia, 1800 - 1830: Gold Yield

From 1800 - 1820, the Russian Gold Yield (at purity) ranged closely from 303.9 - 203.9 kgs (814.1 - 546.4 Troy Pounds.)  

In 1822, the Gold Yield had more than trebled : to 789.1 kgs (2,114 Troy Pounds.)

In 1824, the Gold Yield had risen more than 10x in just 4 years : to 3,068 kgs (8,221 Troy Pounds.) 

Where Gold was real money, it is hard to imagine such extraordinary circumstances and the impact on currency, import prices, trade, debt markets and other financial instruments at the government level.  Russian Paper currency was stable against others; nor do basic commodity prices appear likewise distorted by the super-abundance of Gold.  While Russian slaves (serfs) could gain only by theft, a small number of elites, the lessees, certainly profited.

It is also not clear any large development nor social benefit accrued to Russia or the metropolis from the discovery & exploitation of this massive monetary wealth at this time - consider the Gold Rush with settlement of both California and Australia, by contrast.

California: 
From 1850 - 1854, US Pig iron rose from $20.87 to $36.87;the Total Wholesale Index rose from 84 to 108.  Gold in circulation rose from $90 mln to 155 mln., total currency from $221 mln. to $342 mln. (See Robert Sobel, 1999.)

Citation: Voyage dans l'Oural entrepris en 1828 A. Th de Kupffer (1833)

 

 

USA, 1870s

1866/7?: 1 Troy Ounce of platina = $  4.28  (USD$  6.03)

1867: 1 Troy Ounce platina = USD$ 4.40  (USD$  6.56)

1870: 1 Troy Ounce platina (unmanufactured) = USD$ 4.67 (USD$ 5.36)
c.1871: 1 Troy Ounce of platina = $  5. 5


c.1870: 1 Troy Oz. Platinum (refined, imported price, retail) = USD$ 5.50 - 15. 
c.1871?: 1 Troy Ounce of Platinum = $  6. 

c.1873: 1 Troy Ounce of Platinum = $ 7.90 

1875: 1 Troy Ounce of Platinum = $ 8.39

c.1870s - 80s: 1 Troy Ounce of Platinum = $  7. - 7.50

USA, 1880s: Dental Platinum Alloys

DSQ
c.1880s:

In France, "Platinum alloy" with less than 35% Pt was called 'platine au titre' - different dental Platinum alloys by standard weight ranged from 45-66% Pt.

1)  Pt 66.67% / Au 22.22% / Ag 11.11%
2)  Pt 58.33% / Au 16.67% / Ag 25%
3)  Pt 41.67% / Au 25% / Pd 33.33%

Citation: The Metallic alloys: a practical guide for the manufacture of all kinds... William Theodore Brannt (1889)

 

1880: 1 Troy Ounce Platinum (Mkt: Semi-Mfg)  = USD$ 7.97

1881:  1 Troy Oz. Platinum (Mkt: Semi-Mfg)  = USD$ 8.69

1882: 1  Troy Ounce platina (semi-refined) =  USD$ 6.

1883: 1 Troy Ounce of Platinum = $ 10.29

1883: 1 Troy Oz Platinum (refined, mfg, whols./import) = USD$ 6.50 - 7.50
 
c.1884: 1 Troy Oz. of Platinum (disputed low, US ore?) = $  3.- 5. 

c.1884: 1 Troy Oz. of Platinum (semi-refined, retail) = $  8. 
 
c.1884: 1 Troy Oz Platinum (refined, mfg, retail) = USD$ 10.89 - 14.
1884: 1 Troy Oz "Platinum" (generic range: all types) = USD$ 8. - 12.
1884: 1 Troy Oz Platinum (refined, mfg, whols./import) = USD$ 7.50 - 8.50

1886: 1  Troy Ounce Platinum (unmanufactured) =  USD$ 6.

1887: 1  Troy Ounce Platinum (unmanufactured) =  USD$ 7.50

1888: 1  Troy Ounce Platinum (unmanufactured) =  USD$ 6.80
 
1889: 1 Troy Ounce of Platinum = $  8.
October, 1889: 1 Troy Ounce platina = USD$ 17.50

March, 1890: 1 Troy Ounce of Platinum = $ 14.

October, 1890: 1 Troy Ounce of Platinum = $ 20.

 1911; 1918:

1)  White Gold:  ..........................Pt 40% / Au 60%
2)  Cooper's Gold (1) : ......................Pt 18.75% / Cu 81.25%
3)  Cooper's Gold (2) : ......................Pt 29.17% / Cu 66.6% / Zn 4.15%
4)  Cooper's Pen Metal (1) : .............Pt 50% / Ag 37.5% / Cu 12.5%
5)  Cooper's Pen Metal (2) : .............Pt 50% / Ag 37.5% / Cu 12.5%
6)  Cooper's ("Platina") (1) : ............Pt 25% / Ag 70% / Ni 5%
7)  Cooper's ("Platina") (2) : ............Pt 0% / Ag 70% / Co 5% / Pd 25%




Platinum Alloys, generally (cited prior to 1890): "Cooper's Pen Metal"

c.1889:


1888:



c. 1830?
   

c. 1820:


c.1890: Dental Alloy

Platinized Silver Plate was recommended 80% Ag, 20% Pt; Platinized Silver Wire
66.7% Ag, 33.3% Pt

'Platina' just alloy (of Tin) 1880s - 1912: