Platinum Coin!

Nice coin!

The Russian Empire had a whole riverful of the stuff, and no other practical use to put it to. I guess they thought they might as well make coins out of it. Apparently they made buttons and other trinkets out of it, too.


They didn't. While platinum has a melting point too high (1756 degrees C) for anything but modern technology to melt, platinum can be cold-compressed relatively easily. Since most contaminants in platinum have a lower melting point than it, raw platinum can be refined simply by getting it as hot as possible; the platinum just sits there while everything else melts or evaporates away. The resulting "sponge" can then be compressed into sheets of pure metal, then cut into coin blanks.

Russia is the only country to have ever issued circulating platinum coinage. While the 6 and 12 rouble pieces were more for show, the 3 roubles were made in sufficient quantity to be a practical part of the economy. They were also restruck at later dates in unknown quantities for the collections of Russian nobility.

Look at those planchet defects on that coin linked above. Obviously, they had difficulty refining/rolling out the platinum.

I'll never forget a story a dealer friend told me, of a group of "white metal" Russian coins being auctioned--and somebody getting an incredible deal because the auction house did was not aware of platinum coins.