Because it was first chanced upon in silver mine in South America, platinum was named as such, after the Spanish word "platina", which translates to "little silver". 2. Palladium - William Hyde Wollaston, an English chemist and physicist, discovered palladium in 1803 in samples of platinum ore obtained from South America. coin (FV: CD2), were issued by RCM, but only in 1994. In 2009, the 1 oz. coin was reintroduced. All coins, which have legal tender status in Canada, consist of 0.9995 pure platinum. The Australian Platinum Koala: The Australian Platinum Koala bullion coins were first released in 1988 by the Perth Mint, the oldest currently operating mint in Australia. The same can be said of bismuth, which has a mass abundance half less than that of palladium, but with a price of only a little more than a tenth of tellurium's price. In terms of mass abundance, expressed in parts per billion (ppb), here's how the nine precious metals are ranked (rare to rarest): 9th: silver (75 ppb); 8th: palladium (15 ppb); 7th: gold (4 ppb); 6th: osmium (1.5 ppb); 5th to 3rd: iridium, rhodium, and ruthenium (1 ppb); 2nd: rhenium (0.7 ppb); and 1st: platinum (0.003 ppb). It is the third element (after tungsten and carbon) with the highest melting point and the fourth densest (after platinum, iridium, and osmium). Commercially, rhenium is traded in powder form. Its principal application is in the making of certain parts of jet engines. Here, the metal is added to high-temperature nickel-based superalloys. It can be plated by means of two methods: thermal decomposition and electrodeposition. Following is a list of some of the properties of ruthenium: General: Chemical Symbol: Ru Atomic Number: 44 Category (as an element): Transition Metal Group/ Period/ Block (in the Periodic Table): 8/ 5/ d Atomic Weight: 101.07 g. In this gold investment vehicle, two parties (a "buyer" and a "seller") enter into a contract, in which the seller agrees to pay the buyer the difference between the current value of gold and its value at contract time. In case the difference is negative, the seller receives payment instead from the buyer.