Silver has long been the metal of choice for so many beautiful things in the home. From delicate silverware cutlery to rings and chain necklaces, this attractive metal can glisten in many forms. However, silver is not as durable as gold and can tarnish and dull easily. When precious metal is subject to corrosion, it…

The glittering golden mineral pyrite, an iron sulfide, is known to most people as fool’s gold, something that promises great value but is intrinsically worthless. But pyrite is, has been, and will be important to you and the rest of humankind. It is the mineral that made the modern world. This influence extends from human…

Material choices for jewelers have progressed far beyond just gold and silver, as there is now a huge range of different alloys available. These alloys offer different characteristics than pure precious metals, one of which is a variance in color. When you combine a bright yellow metal such as gold with metals of different colors,…

Palladium was discovered by William Hyde Wollaston in 1803. The element was named by Wollaston in 1804 after the asteroid Pallas, which was discovered two years earlier. Wollaston found palladium in crude platinum ore for South America by dissolving the ore aqua regia, neutralizing the solution with sodium hydroxide, and precipitating platinum as ammonium chloroplatinate…

Gold has been hoarded by governments and individuals for longer than history remembers because the precious metal is so valuable. There are an estimated 244 thousand metric tons of gold in the world, which if gathered together would total a giant cube measuring 28 meters on each side. But where is all this gold? Around…

When the higher-ups at large corporations or even in government intentionally manipulate financial statements for their own personal gain, the ramifications can be huge. When discovered, these financial accounting scandals have a huge effect on the entire company, including its employees and customers. Over the past few decades, we’ve seen some of the largest accounting…

Owning physical gold as an individual investor is something that gets counted in ounces. Even full-on “gold bugs,” investors who are really into gold, are likely to own a relatively small amount of the precious metal. At least relative to central banks, which work on an entirely different scale. These giant institutions own tons of…

Anyone who has ever been to a jewelry store will have come into contact with gold. It is arguably the most popular of all the precious metals, and for good reason. The history between humans and gold goes back thousands of years. Another precious metal that people are not as familiar with, but which they…