Platinum and gold are one of the rarest of precious metals, they are found in only a few locations around the world. To produce a single ounce of finished platinum, a total of 10 tons of ore must be mined and three tones of ore are required to produce one ounce of gold. The rarity of platinum versus gold gives it its cachet (and cost).
Gold and Platinum scratch alike and has to be maintained once or twice a year to keep its fresh shiny look.
Platinum is one of the strongest and most enduring of all metals, it is also one of the heaviest. A piece of diamond jewelry containing 90 percent pure platinum weighs 60 percent more than 14-karat gold piece of similar size.
In the United States, diamond platinum jewelry generally contains anywhere from 85 to 95 percent pure platinum. By comparison, 18-karat gold is 75% pure gold and 14k is 58.5 % pure gold. We at Diamonds-USA.com use 95 to 98 percent of Platinum for all our Platinum Jewelry.
If a piece of platinum is marked "Platinum," it contains at least 95 % pure platinum. Jewelry with 85 to 95 percent pure platinum is marked "850 PLAT" or "950 PLAT" or "950 Pt.," etc. Diamond jewelry containing at least 50 percent pure platinum and at least 45 percent platinum group metals (palladium, iridium, osmium, rhodium and ruthenium), with 95 % of the two groups together, is marked with the platinum content followed by the other metal. For example:"600 Plat.350 Irid." Diamond jewelry that contains less than 50% Platinum should not be marked as Platinum at all.
