It is not well known that palladium is a charcoal grey metal and a member of the Platinum family. It is softer than platinum so jewelers consider palladium more ideal to work with. It is also cheaper and so larger jewelery pieces can be designed. It has an excellent resistance to corrosion and any palladium piece should bear a hallmark (in the US) of Pd950 or PD 500 to indicate the percentage of palladium to other metals.

Palladium is becoming more popular in jewelery and its malleability makes it ideal for setting gemstones. It is often alloyed with gold to produce white gold which tends to look rather gray in appearance so rhodium is quite often coated to give that bright white sparkle white gold bears.

Palladium is also tarnish free and hypoallergenic, which is to say people generally do not have any allergy to palladium, but sometimes, if mixed with other metals there may be an allergic reaction to those other metals, particularly nickel.

There are various “mixtures” of metals with palladium available. One such is 50/50 platinum and palladium. This has the advantage of being both valuable (the platinum being more than twice the value of the palladium) and harder and more resistant to wear. It also retains that whiteness that goes so well with gemstones, such as diamonds for example.

As gold and platinum increase in value palladium is often seen as an excellent alternative, particularly for pendants and earrings being lighter than both other metals and easier to wear therefore.

In Europe palladium is the standard for alloying with gold to produce white gold. It avoids the problems some people have with skin issues such as dermatitis and eczema.

Keeping palladium clean is very simple. A wash in warm soapy water then well rinsed to get any residue soap out of the crevasses and then completely dried is sufficient most of the time.

Palladium is an excellent precious metal to use and knowing these palladium jewelery facts will help you to decide that palladium is for you in the future.

Palladium coins are a form of coinage made out of the rare silver-white transition metal palladium.

Palladium is internationally recognized as a form of currency under ISO 4217. And ISO 4217 is the international standard describing three letter codes (also known as the currency code) to define the names of currencies established by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

Palladium is a precious metal that has good characteristics for coinage, It is light, easy to work and looks impressive and rather like platinum. But its use as circulation coins has been very limited, possibly becasue it is very soft and liable to wear.

One of the earliest coin uses of native platinum (before palladium was identified and separated from the naturally-occurring metal) was in the Spanish colonies of South America, where it was used to make counterfeit gold coins. The bogus coins were struck in native platinum, sometimes within the same mint where the legitimate gold coins were pressed, then they were gilded with gold, and passed off as pure gold.

In 1967, the South Pacific island nation of Tonga was the first to issue palladium general circulation coins commemorating the coronation of King Taufa Ahau Tupou IV,

Since then a number of countries have jumped on the band wagon and issued palladium coins, including Australia, Canada, China, France, the Former Soviet Union, Russia, and Slovakia. Most of these have been special commemorative coins. A list of all Palladium coins ever minted can be found at palladium coins.

From 1987 to 1990, Portugal began issuing palladium proof coins as part of a series with other metals.

1987, France issued a 100 Franc palladium bullion proof coin featuring the bust of Lafayette. 1987 was a popular year for palladium bullion; the Isle of Man, an island kingdom in the Irish Sea, issued a palladium coin in commemoration of the bicentennial of the United States’ Constitution and featuring Queen Elizabeth II on the obverse and on the reverse are 11 U.S. presidents encircling the Statue of Liberty.

From 1989 to 1995, Russia made some limited palladium bullion issues, known as the ballerina series because the obverse would typically feature a ballerina striking a pose.

China struck its first palladium Pandas in 1989, but none have been produced since then until this year, when they minted 8,000 100 Yuan palladium coins featuring the lovely kissing pandas.

Australia produced some palladium bullion coins in an “Emu” series from 1995 to 1997. Four different mintings were done with variations on the Emu, a flightless bird, for each. The coins, both proof and bullion, are one troy ounce of 99.95% pure palladium with a face value $A40. The first limited bullion version sold 10 percent over the prevailing palladium price. Australia marketed the first proof or collector version at $A350 - the number of proofs minted 2,500. The Perth Mint suspended the Emu series when the price of palladium doubled in 1998.

Palladium coins are interesting to collect and likely to increase in value over the years due to their rarity and uncommon issue.

Palladium is a member of the platinum family and was first used for jewelery during the late 1930s when platinum was earmarked for military use during the war.

Jewelry palladium tends to be a bit more rare than ordinary jewelery, Palladium is a member of the platinum family but is a softer metal and easier to work for jewelers so is becoming more popular for the use of rings, bracelets and sometimes pendants and earrings.

Palladium is more precious than silver and whiter than platinum. It is also lighter than platinum being only about half the weight it is ideal for larger jewelery and for settings such as diamond rings.

It is also available as bars and coins and becoming very popular for collectors and enthusiasts.

Keeping palladium clean is quite easy. It only requires a wash in warm soapy water and well rinsed and dried to remain in pristine condition.

Palladium can oxidize and show up black if subjected to great heat but will resume its normal color when cooled again. However repeated heating and cooling can cause it to become brittle and crack so reasonable care should be taken with palladium jewelery.

Palladium alloys for jewelery usually contain about 95% palladium and 5 percent of a metal called ruthenium and some trace elements of other metals. This form of palladium is white, malleable, hypoallergenic and easy to work and finish or polish.

Palladium jewelery is relatively inexpensive compared to platinum and can make a fine and very nice piece of jewelery.

Palladium is fast becoming the new popular precious metal so it is a good idea to know something about it.

A British chemist, William Hyde Wollaston was the discoverer of palladium in 1803. He named this new precious metal after “Pallas” the ancient Greek goddess of wisdom. It was not very well known for many years after still except in industry and manufacturing where it was used extensively in a variety of ways.

Palladium is steel white in appearance yet does not tarnish in air. It is a member of the platinum group of metals and has the lowest density of the entire group. It also has the lowest melting point of the group. Palladium can be used for purification of hydrogen as it readily diffuses through the heated metal and can absorb up to 900 times it’s own weight in hydrogen.

Palladium is used in a number of applications including dentistry, surgical instruments, electrical contacts and components. Watch making and oxygen sensors among many other uses. It is also used in jewelry as it is cheaper than platinum and easier to work for jewelers.

Palladium jewelry products are usually sold as 95 percent palladium and palladium looks very similar to platinum but is not so hard. It is becoming increasingly popular as it is around half the density of platinum and so more jewelery can be produced per dollar. US stamping laws have placed no restrictions on palladium jewelery products in the US and palladium is not even recognized in some European countries as a precious metal and so is not hallmarked. Nevertheless it makes an ideal metal for jewelery as it does not requite any plating and its white sheen does not wear off..

Palladium is now an up a coming precious metal and many mints now strike palladium coins and small bars, called biscuits, which are becoming more popular with investors and coin collectors.

Palladium is the new precious metal now becoming popular for jewelry. It is softer than platinum and is easier to work although of the same family. It is also considerably cheaper than platinum and so you get more palladium for your dollar.

It looks great though, like shiny steel and does not tarnish or wear away so requires no coating to maintain its brilliance.

As well as jewelry, palladium is used extensively in industry in automobile parts as well as such dentistry, surgical instruments, electrical contacts and components. Watch making and oxygen sensors among many other uses.

The US government places no restrictions on palladium at this point so there are no hallmarks, as there are with platinum products. Palladium is also becoming popular with coin collectors since various mints, such as the Royal Canadian Mint, the US Mint and the Royal British Mint, for example, are now striking coins and small bullion bars in palladium.

Palladium coins and small bars are subject to the same conditions as gold and silver coins and bars. They should all come sealed in a transparent plastic bubble and with a valid certificate of authenticity. Of course one should not touch the coins especially as that can leave what are known as cracks on the surface. This applies especially to proof coins which have been stamped several times to achieve the brilliant sheen that proof coins have.

Storing them away out of heat and bright light is a good idea also. Provided they are well looked after your palladium coins and bars will last for a lifetime and retain their value and, as palladium becomes more and more popular, will perhaps even increase in value.

Some people ask when is the best time to sell palladium. Palladium is the one precious metal that has not yet joined the bull market in precious metals and although gold, silver and platinum have been wining their way upward palladium has remained steady.

However palladium is slowly becoming more popular as a metal for jewelery being much favored by jewelers as it is very easy to work and not as expensive as platinum. In addition many people see a potential delayed growth of interest in the metal which is likely to draw it upward into the same vertically velocity being favored by the other precious metals.

This would indicate that this is not a time to sell palladium but, rather, a time to buy. The current price of palladium has not changed much over recent years apart from the Russian debacle. Russia caused a supply shock by declaring that it would not sell palladium in the following year. This announcement caused prices to spike and palladium peaked in early 2001 at $1,050/ounce. The Ford Motor company, who had stock piled palladium at 1500 dollars an ounce later sold off a heap of palladium at 400 dollars an ounce. Other than that little skirmish the price has moved very little.

It is easy to accumulate palladium. One can buy bullion in the form of bars as well as coins. Many of the mints these days produce palladium coins and one only needs to ensure that any bullion one buys is pure palladium and to ensure the quality is not degraded by handling them but keeping any palladium in the containers it comes it.

Give a few years it seems quite possible that one can do very well and to sell palladium at this stage would not be recommended

Palladium is one of the precious metals of the platinum group, see Platinum Price, and has a wide and diverse range of industrial applications in addition to bullion and coin usages.

It is a charcoal gray form of platinum found in mostly in Russia, South Africa and North America.

Palladium has many of the same properties as platinum such as its resistance to corrosion and versatile applications in jewelry designs. Pieces made with Palladium bear the hallmarks of Pd950 or Pd500.

Like gold and silver, this rare precious metal is minted into bullion for investment purposes, and can also be used as the basis for custom coins. This metal comes from refiner Johnson Matthey in strip form ready for blanking by Northwest Territorial Mint.