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Interesting Facts About Platinum
Do you know that
meteorites contain platinum? Two billion years ago, an enormous
meteorite crashed in North America, and platinum was discovered in the
meteorite.
As early as 700BC, platinum jewelry used by the blue-bloods of Egypt.
When Egyptologists opened the tomb of the Shepenupet, the high priestess
and daughter of the King of Thebes, they found her magnificent
sarcophagus decorated with gold and platinum hieroglyphics, and a small
document casket made of platinum.
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Archeologists
digging around Incans ruins, found Incan nose rings and other
ceremonial pieces of jewelry, dating around 100 BC.
In the year 1590, Spanish conquistadores, encountered platinum and
couldn’t fathom its value. Unimpressed, they threw it back into the
rivers of Ecuador,
Europe’s Louis XVI of France, was so impressed with platinum, that he
proclaimed it the only metal fit for Royalty.
Up until the mid-18th century, the metal’s high melting point at 3190
F or 1755 C, made it, a difficult material for jewelry, and then the
oxyhydrogen torch is invented. By the end of the 18th century,
European royalty have become platinum crazy. In fact, Carlos IV of
Spain commissioned the creation of a 'Platinum Room' at the royal
palace in Aranjuez, and the room features hard wood decoration
encrusted with platinum.
In 1936, then King Edward VIII of England abdicated to marry divorcee
Wallis Simpson, and they exchanged platinum wedding bands made by
Cartier.
During the Second World War, the US gov’t declared platinum a
strategic metal and disallowed it for jewelry.
Today, the use of platinum as the choice metal for jewelry has come
full circle. In 1997, Tanaka Kikinzoku Kogyo of Tokyo, Japan, created
a Cinderella shoe using 41/2 lbs (2 kg) of platinum metals......
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