UK, 1804: Platinum Before Wollaston's Sale

On October 5, 1804, a large shipment of 32 chests (~4,000 Troy Ounces; 124.4 kgs) of platina was seized by British Commodore Moore from the Spanish Frigate Médée (Bustamante Guerra) and presumably sold on the UK market (at Plymouth, around October 19th?)  Wollaston's purchase record does not show he acquired this platina in 1805 or 1806.

This bulk platina seizure is 2/3rds Wollaston's 'monopolist purchase' in 1800 and ten times greater than the widely-publicized large bulk sale in New York in 1802. Similar bulk auctions  may have periodically discounted bulk platina in the UK; it is also not known whether merchant banks held platina as a commodity or for what duration.

This Continental/ Atlantic news was reported in London October 25th 1804 and in Haiti March 14th, 1805; there was a 4.5 month lag-time in trans-Atlantic commercial news during the winter months.

 

The Diary of William Allen recorded the early manufactures of Thomas Cock, in late 1804.
(See A history of platinum and its allied metals; Donald McDonald and Leslie B. Hunt, 1982, p139.)  Cock's refined Platinum was not pure, however.

It appear that the amounts indicated were ounces avoirdupois ("56 ounces" = 3.5 lb avd.); "Small Platina" refers to reduced sponge.

51 Troy Ounces platina > 30.9 Troy Ounces Refined Platinum = 65.81% purity

1804/5: 1 Troy Oz. Pt Sponge (33.4833 ozt  @ £ 30.20) =  £ 0.90
1804/5: 1 Troy Oz. Pt, refined (44.9833 ozt  @ £ 27.61) =  £ 0.6138

 33.4833 ozt + 11.5 ozt = 44.98 ozt.

1804/5: 1 Troy Ounce platina (ore; whols.) = £ 0.2468 (USD$ 1.12)
1804/5: 1 Troy Oz. Platinum (intrinsic) = £ 0.3751 (USD$ 1.71)
1804/5: 1 Troy Oz. Platinum (refining cost) = £ 0.4452 (USD$ 2.) 
1804/5: 1 Troy Oz. Platinum (producer price) = £ 0.82 (USD$ 3.71)
1804/5: 1 Troy Oz. Platinum (mfg, retail) = £ 1.659 (USD$ 7.50)


The 1830 British Platinum Low gave pause for reflection; ~27 years earlier,Wollaston's Platinum was not yet sold in London.  Paris-imported Platinum, presuambly Jeanetty's, was 3-4 x higher (at least 35% higher than the Paris Price, to include merchant profit, importer's markup, plus any tariffs.)

1830: 1 Troy Ounce Platinum (Ru ingot) = £ 0.75 (USD$ )
c.1803: 1 Troy Ounce Platinum (ingot) = £ 2.44 - 3.00 (USD$ 10. -13.75) 

c.1798 - 1803:

Factoring the intrinsic rate cited in New York in 1802, early imported French Platinum-ware was likely sold at the Price of Fine Gold.

c.1804 (see 1839)

Gold's Specific Gravity is 19.32-19.33; Platinum is 21.45
Where Hammered Gold is 19.3617; Hammered Platinum should be 21.53

Refined, rolled & hammered Platinum was assumed to have an incorrect specific gravity of "22.07" : probably, ~12% Iridium

UK, 1806: Retail Platina

Dr. Wollaston's commercial production coincided with and probably supported a very stable period in platina prices.  John Johnson's platina sale to Wollaston started in December 1806, with large lot sales (1,000 - 1,750 ozt) in 1808.

Of 7,015 Ozt platina processed 1800-1806, Wollaston produced 5,350 Ozt Platinum: the ore was ~76.27% Pt.

Wollaston assumed Johnson purchased 1 Libra for S$ 6. silver; at 1806 forex on New Dollars:

1806: 1 Troy Ounce platina (Importer's Cost, 76.3% ore)  = £ 0.0975 - 0.1063
1806: 1 Troy Oz Pt (Importer's Cost, .999)  = £ 0.1278 - 0.1394
1806: 1 Troy Oz Pt (Wollaston's Labor, Per Ozt)  = £ 0.10
1806: 1 Troy Oz Platinum (Wollaston's Cost Basis, .999)  = £ 0.2278 - 0.2394
 
At English Retail, 1 Libra cost ~£ 4. (S$ 17.59 - 17.85)

1806: 1 Troy Ounce platina (76.3% ore, retail)  = £ 0.2743 (USD$ 1.22)
1806: 1 Troy Oz .999 Pt (Ore at Purity)  = £ 0.3596 (USD$ 1.60)
1806: 1 Troy Oz Pt (Labor Cost, Sheet)  = £ 0.0875 (USD$ 0.39)
1806: 1 Troy Oz Platinum (Producer Cost, Sheet)  = £ 0.4471 (USD$ 1.99)

1806: 1 Troy Oz Silver (Fine Ag, retail)  = £ 0.3161 (USD$ 1.406)

1805: 1 Troy Ounce platina (Wollaston: ore, bulk)  = £ 0.23 (USD$ 0.98)

Where 2.28 Ozt cost £ 0.625:

1806:

Citation: The Technical repository, Edit.Thomas Gill (patent-agent) p.124

UK, 1867: Scrap Price

1867: 1 Troy Ounce Platinum (Semi-Mfg, Retail) = £ 1.60 (USD$ 11.00)
1866/7: 1 Troy Oz. Platinum (Scrap, Bid) = £ 1.00 (USD$ 6.88)

PLATINA WIRE—I pay 32s. per ounce for plate or wire, but only get 20s. allowed for cuttings, or short lengths of wire. The process of remelting and working platina into larger pieces, for sale, is very costly and troublesome, and causes the great difference between the two prices—THOS. FLETCHER. 
 
Citation: English Mechanic and Mirror of Science and Art, Vol. 4 (3/22/1867) p.437


In 1866/7, Johnson & Matthey were still importing Platinum from the St. Petersburg Mint, at a rate of £ 13.20 per Pound Troy, £ 35.4/kg ; £ 16./lbs. avd. 

1867: 1 Ozt. Platinum (Customs rate) = £ 1.10 (USD$ 7.57)



In London 1865, Platinum scrap sold at 25% discount to the market or common price.

1865: 1 Ozt. Platinum (Refined, Whols.) = £ 1.24 (USD$ 9.57) 

1865: 1 Ozt. Platinum (Semi-mfg., Ret.) = £ 1.60 (USD$ 12.30)

1865: 1 Ozt. Platinum (Mfg., Ret.) = £ 2.40 (USD$ 18.46)
 
1866/7: 1 Troy Oz. Platinum (Scrap, Retail) ~ £ 1.00 (USD$ 6.88)  


1866/7:


It would be erroneous to presume the -24% difference in the Grove's Battery unit price was entirely due to a Platinum Price Drop - too many factors might otherwise account for Griffin's higher retail price.

1865: Single-Cell Grove's Battery = £ 0.66
1867: Single-Cell Grove's Battery = £ 0.50

c.1862/7 
Where 1 Ingot (£ 1,100) would compose 1 5-Ton Boiler (£ 1,640) the mfg cost was £ 540.
The ingot appears to have been 931 Ozt. (28.957 Kgs.)

1867: 1 Troy Oz. Platinum (Bulk) = £ 1.1815 (USD$ 9.09) 
1867: 1 Troy Oz. Platinum (Mfg., Still) = £ 1.762 (USD$ 13.55)




Paris: Exposition universelle d'art et d'industrie de 1867


Dentist Ward offered complete set of teeth on Platinized Silver, £ 6.; on Platina, £ 9.; on Gold  £ 12.

Citation: The Charities' record and philanthropic messenger (Dec. 31, 1867) p.75

France, 1830

Uncertain date. Platina and Platinum prices had fallen dramatically by 1830/1 but began rising in 1832 with expanding US demand.
1829: 1 Troy Ounce Platinum (refined) = Fr 22.35 (USD$ 4.39)
1832:

Citation: Eléments de technologie ou description des procédés des arts... Louis-Benjamin Francoeur (1833) p.288


Vague references to platina costing "less than Silver" (< Fr 4) suddenly appear in French textbooks around 1834/5.

Following the 1825 Platina Price Collapse in Russia, a Paris Platinum Price LOW occurred c.1830, coincident with a refined Pt Low in Great Britain (c.1831.)

Given a reasonable lag-time between source & consumer markets, the -60% collapse in platina exports from Cartagena c. 1834 and a clamour from US buyers to know the price of platinum stills (in 1833) both appear to confirm this hypothesis.

The first edition of this book appeared in 1834, the ms. may have been prepared several years earlier. This price does not likely recall 10 years earlier, when the author was 15 years old; rather, this almost certainly indicates the 1830 Low Price. Also, the 1835 edition of a different title by the same author (and virtually identical text) cites a higher Platinum price.

It wasn't often that, from the Siberian discovery (1817) to 1840, platina was cheaper than standard Silver on the French market (unless specie & bullion was in greater demand?)

The Colombian tariff (after December 1828) would have marginally raised platina costs for merchants, marginally by April/May 1829 and thereafter.

March, 1829?: 1 Troy Oz. Platinum (refined, mkt) = Fr 14.22 (USD$ 2.72)
1830: 1 Troy Oz. platina (ore, Paris mkt) < Fr 6.60 or USD$ 1.27
1831: 1 Troy Oz. Silver (mkt) = Fr 6.60 (USD$ 1.27)

Citation: Petite histoire naturelle des écoles ou leçons sur les minéraux, les plantes ...; Constant Saucerotte (1840; first ed. 1834) p.23

The 1st edition of the school texbook, in 1834:

October 1830: Osmiridium separated more efficiently  



The English Troy Ounce of Silver in Paris, 1831 = Fr 6.60

The French Edition (1831) omits any reference to Russian discoveries or coinage. Fairly typical for textbooks, the price data was already moot and incorrect.

In Russia it is already established as a coin, and shaped pieces of it to 3 and 5 rubles. The value of this "noble metals" is about 5 times the silver, for a long time ago in Paris that cost 1 gram platinum francs - and a three-ruble piece weighs 10.35 grams.

Citation: Traité de chimie appliquée aux arts. 8 tom. [and] Atlas, Vol. 3; Jean Baptiste A. Dumas

Compilation of various dated sources 

Citation: Manuel du voyageur en Allemagne: itinéraire de l'artiste, du négociant ...  By Audin (1836)


In 1830, 78.25 kgs of platina were imported to France.

1830 : French Imports of platina (ore, 75%) = 2,516 Ozt
1830 : French Platinum Import (at purity) ~ 1,887 Ozt

Citation: Archives du Commerce, ou Guide des commerçans, recueil de tous ..., Vol. 3 p.27


Ghent/Gand Belgium:

1830 Coins



1832 Coins

France, 1857: Platinum Alloys Developed

The estimated 1857 cost of 1 Kilogram of Paris Platinum was Fr 940.

1857: 1 Troy Ounce platina (SPb: 78.4% Ore) ~ Fr 20.57 (USD $ 4.84)
1857: 1 Troy Oz Platinum (SPb: Bulk, Scrap .98 Pt) = Fr 26.204 (USD $ 6.17)
1857: 1 Troy Oz Pt (Estimated Paris refining cost) ~ Fr 2.50  (USD $ 0.59)
1857: 1 Troy Oz. Platinum (Paris: Producer's Cost) ~ Fr 29.24  (USD $ 6.88)

The market price fell 20% in 1857-8, seen here and reported in German industrial journals.  This seminal paper reported increasing efficiencies in the production of refined Platinum and outlined the range of prices, ore to manufactures. 

Deville and Debray likely rounded a Cartagena price of Fr 667.7 per kg; see Colombia 1858.

1857: 1 Troy Oz. platina (Cartagena: Choco ore) ~ Fr 21.77  (USD $ 4.25)
1857: 1 Troy Oz. Platinum (Bid, Scrap) = Fr 23.33 (USD$ 4.54)
1857: 1 Troy Oz Pt ('Wet' Refining) = Fr 7.78  (USD $ 1.52) 
1857: 1 Troy Oz Platinum (Refined, Mkt) = Fr 31.10  (USD $ 6.07)
1857: 1 Troy Oz. Platinum (Paris Mfg, still?) = Fr 37.33 (USD$ 7.26)

1858: 1 Troy Oz platina (Cartagena: Choco ore) = Fr 20.77 (USD $ 4.15)

Thus the French customs only has records of a patent absurdity on the value of platinum quoted at Fr. 3,000 per kilogram instead of Fr. 700 and its origins: in official documents because they brought ore from countries that do have never provided . As for the quantities introduced annually in France , numbers that concern them, and seem to have no value , only indicate that consumption of platinum is growing in our country.

New platinum is bought for Fr. 1,000 without manufacture: the deteriorated object that has not lost weight, where the metal remains unaltered, will only sell at a price of Fr. 750 per kilogram suffering a 25% loss. This platinum's depreciation is caused by the fact that it must be dissolved and prepared again, as if it were still in the ore. That is why it is not worth much more than the ore itself, the current price (coming from Choco) is Fr. 700 kilogram.
 


Citation:  ANNALES DES MINES OU RECUEIL DE MEMOIRES SUR L'EXPLOITATION DES MINES ET SUR... (1859) p.113

Belge reference:

1858: 1 Troy Oz. Platinum (Scrap, Bid) = Fr 18.66 (USD$ 3.63)
1858: 1 Troy Oz. Platinum (Scrap, Bid) = Fr 23.33 (USD$ 4.54)

1858: 1 Troy Oz. Platinum (Ru ingot, whols.) = Fr 18.66 (USD$ 3.)
 
1859: 1 Troy Oz. Platinum (Ru ingot, whols.) = Fr 15.55 (USD$ 3.)

1858: 1 Troy Oz. Platinum (German mfg, discounted) = (~USD$ 6.0)

The platinum wicks cost Fr. 1 - 2  according to their dimensions. Their duration is indefinite if the hydrogen gas was always absolutely pure, and if their fragility was increased by crystallization, rather slow indeed, which is made in the surface of the son, exposed to a temperature as high as is that of the flame of hydrogen. The period may be fixed to at least one year; the factory then takes back the used wicks by paying at the rate of 60 to 75 centimes per gram. Costs for the wicks are not significant, and will be offset by the savings on to the glass chimneys, which can be discarded.

c.1857/8
Citation: L' éclairage au gaz à l'eau à Narbonne et l'éclairage au gaz Leprince ...; B. Verver (1858) p.27


1857: 1 Troy Oz Platinum (Mkt) = Fr 31.10  (USD $ 6.07)
1857: 1 Troy Oz Platinum (Mkt, Used) = Fr 24.88  (USD $ 4.86)
1857: 1 Troy Oz Platinum (Scrap) = Fr 21.77  (USD $ 4.25)


 

50 Centimeters of Platinum Wire = Fr. 2.50 ($ 0.49) ; 1 Inch Pt Wire ~ $0.025



Scrap Rate:


Platinum Weights, New and Used:

Platinum-tipped tongs

 

Exceedingly high cost.
1857: 1 Ozt. Platinum Chloride (PtCl2, Ret.) =  Fr 124.41

Citation: L'Officine ou Répertoire géneral de pharmacie pratique; François Dorvault, François Laurent Marie Dorvault (1858)


1857: 1 Ozt. Platinum (Trade) = Fr 31.10  (USD $ 6.07)




Other:

France: Weights

To calculate the Paris livre marchand (abit less than 0.5 kg):   
1 Livre = 15.7378 English Troy Ounces.







Where 1 Kilogram = 2.17341 libras castillan, 1 libra = 0.4601 kg; 1 quintal castillan = 46.01 kg, or 1,479.3 or 1,480.3 English Troy Ounces.

France, 1790 - 1793

Jeannetty was paid L.T. 10.542/Ozt sometime around 1793.  Assuming his platina was 70% Pt and without calculating the refining cost, 

1793: 1 Troy Ounce platina (ore) = L.T. 10.542
1793: 1 Troy Oz. Pt (.999 Ore) = L.T. 15.06

The French Government purchased 75.038 Kgs of platina for Fr. 8,895

1791-1793: 1 Troy Ounce platina (ore) = L.T. 3.687
 
Assuming a par value 'Franc'/Livre, the French government price paid for platina 1791-93 was rather low:

1791: 1 Troy Ounce platina (ore) = Fr 8.13 (USD$ 1.60)

1792: 1 Troy Ounce platina (ore) = Fr 9.14 (USD$ 1.50)

1793: 1 Troy Ounce platina (ore) = Fr 7.88 (USD$ 1.69) 

Citation: Oeuvres, Vol. 6; Antoine Laurent Lavoisier, France. Ministère de l'éducation nationale (18  ) p.679


















See French Weights:
1) 23/9/1791: "7 Marcs, 6 Onces, 6 Gros" =  61.74 Ozt or Fr 8.13/Ozt.
2) 5/1/1792: 28 Marcs = 220.383 Ozt, etc. or Fr 9.15/Ozt.
3) Date? : 13 Marcs = 102.3 Ozt, etc. or Fr 6.61/Ozt.
4) Date? : 31 Marcs = 244.062 Ozt, etc. or Fr 12.23/Ozt.
5) 25/5/1793 : 226.375 Marcs = 1781.345 Ozt, etc. or Fr 1.5247/Ozt. 


Paid at different rates, the average price paid to Janetty was Fr 10.55/Ozt.




"real or apprehensive; at the same time, everything bought by foreigners, or which can be bought by them, has risen greatly; for instance, the cloth of Abbeville, a French commodity, has risen from 30 livres to 42 livres the aulne"

In 1790, at "45 L.T./Ell" and 1 Livre = £ 0.0365 ∴ 1 English Yard of 'Peignon' cost 37.098 - 39.57 L.T. (=£ 1.354 - 1.44)  

In May 1794, when '24 Livres' cost Fr 50. - 55., an Ell of 'Peignon' cost 3 Louis (£ 2.85)
∴ 1 English Yard of 'Peignon' cost Fr 123.66 - 131.90 (=£ 2.35) ; Fr 56.14 = £ 1.




Had the May 1794 Paris Price of manufactured Platinum likewise risen 62.63% from 1790,