Who Discovered Platinum, And When?

It’s easy to look at a piece of jewelry and assume that, no matter what the metal contained is, it’s always been around. And you wouldn’t be far off: most of the precious metals such as gold, platinum, and silver have been around for untold amounts of centuries because they are naturally occurring elements.

But is this the case for every precious metal? Gold and silver have been around since civilization itself, offering a backbone to commerce systems and providing for the currency of economies. Platinum, however, is a much more rare metal - thirty times as rare as gold - that hasn’t enjoyed such an ancient history. Because it is rare, platinum was discovered by the Western world much later than gold and silver, and also has an added mystique of mysterious value and intrinsic worth.

So in order to read up on our platinum history, we have two fundamental questions to answer: Who discovered platinum - and when?

Who Discovered Platinum?

Asking who discovered platinum is a complicated question that needs a complicated answer. Does “discovery” mean the first person who laid eyes on it? Or does discovery mean the first person who realized that platinum was not silver or some other metal they were already familiar with?

If discovery means the first person to lay eyes on platinum, we don’t know for sure - just as we might be exactly sure of the first person to lay eyes on the New World. We do know that platinum occurs naturally on our planet, meaning it has been around for ages, and that it probably existed in a fairly natural state in ancient times.

Some of the earliest evidence of platinum being used by people was in Pre-Columbian America, when Native Americans utilized platinum in a gold-platinum alloy used in creating artifacts. But if we define “discovery” of platinum as someone who realized that platinum was actually its own metal, we’re not sure if we could call these early users of platinum actual “discoverers.”

Columbus came, and with him came the Old World to the New, and with this transition came plenty of discoveries about the nature of our planet and what it contains. One of these new mysteries, to Europeans, was the presence of platinum, which became a mysterious metal. In 1557, Italian humanist Julius Caesar Scaliger described platinum as an unknown and mysterious metal with some outstanding qualities, like a high melting point. So at least by this time, platinum had been discovered as its own separate metal.

And when?

We’re getting a closer look at the actual people who helped discover platinum, but now the answer of “when” comes into play, as well. After people had become aware of this precious, mysterious metal after the discovery of the New World, study was delayed until the 18th Century. At this time, Charles Wood, who was a British metallurgist, found platinum in Jamaica and sent it off ot a colleague, William Brownrigg, for closer study.

A man named Antonio de Ulloa, also credited as an early discoverer of platinum, went to Spain on return from a mission in the Americas. Ulloa wrote an account of his times in the Americas that detailed the existence of platinum, as well as showed his expectation that platinum mines would eventually be discovered.

Brownrigg, also in the mid-18th century, was able to present a study on the element to the British government, detailing its qualities, and mentioning that there was no previous account of platinum in the list of known minerals. After this presentation, more chemists began studying platinum, and throughout the late 18th century, more and more discoveries about platinum were made, delving further into its properties and its qualities.

So no direct credit can be given to any particular discoverer of platinum, since many people have had a hand in both finding it and explaining its existence. Further studies proved that platinum was indeed an element, number 78 on the periodic table, and its grayish white color has been referred to as “white gold.”

Today, platinum is still known as one of the rarest of precious metals, difficult to find and extract but with a durability suitable for the Hope diamond, and for royalty. It also retains a special status as describing the elite in our culture, such as “platinum blond” or a “platinum album.” It says a lot about platinum that the “platinum” album is between the gold and diamond labellings, and it reflects just how rare and precious a metal platinum really is.

If you have platinum in your possession, don’t be afraid to take it to an online metal broker like PlatinumPaq for an appraisal and a fair offer on the amount of platinum your articles contain.

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