1.
Gold nugget
–
Gold nugget may also refer to the lump of gold, or the catfish Baryancistrus xanthellus. The Gold Nugget mango is a mango cultivar that originated in south Florida. The original tree was grown by Edward F. Mitchell of Miami, saigon was thought to possibly be one of the parents of Gold Nugget, but a 2005 pedigree analysis indicated that Gold Nugget was likely an offspring of the Kent mango. Mitchell patented the Gold Nugget in February 1990, which was plant patent number 77158, the fruit was recognized for its flavor and heavy production characteristics. Gold Nugget is now grown on a small, limited scale in Florida. Gold Nugget trees are planted in the collections of the USDAs germplasm repository in Miami, the skin of the fruit turns yellow orange at maturity, sometimes with some pink blush. The flesh is yellow and virtually fiberless, with a sweet flavor. It is usually of oval shape and weighs under a pound, Gold Nugget fruit typically matures from late-July to August in Florida. The tree is a vigorous grower with an open canopy
Gold nugget
–
Comparison of
Ataulfo (left) and Gold Nugget (right)
Gold nugget
2.
Metal
–
A metal is a material that is typically hard, opaque, shiny, and has good electrical and thermal conductivity. Metals are generally malleable—that is, they can be hammered or pressed permanently out of shape without breaking or cracking—as well as fusible and ductile, about 91 of the 118 elements in the periodic table are metals, the others are nonmetals or metalloids. Some elements appear in both metallic and non-metallic forms, astrophysicists use the term metal to collectively describe all elements other than hydrogen and helium, the simplest two, in a star. The star fuses smaller atoms, mostly hydrogen and helium, to larger ones over its lifetime. In that sense, the metallicity of an object is the proportion of its matter made up of all chemical elements. Many elements and compounds that are not normally classified as metals become metallic under high pressures, the atoms of metallic substances are typically arranged in one of three common crystal structures, namely body-centered cubic, face-centered cubic, and hexagonal close-packed. In bcc, each atom is positioned at the center of a cube of eight others, in fcc and hcp, each atom is surrounded by twelve others, but the stacking of the layers differs. Some metals adopt different structures depending on the temperature, atoms of metals readily lose their outer shell electrons, resulting in a free flowing cloud of electrons within their otherwise solid arrangement. This provides the ability of metallic substances to easily transmit heat, while this flow of electrons occurs, the solid characteristic of the metal is produced by electrostatic interactions between each atom and the electron cloud. This type of bond is called a metallic bond, Metals are usually inclined to form cations through electron loss, reacting with oxygen in the air to form oxides over various timescales. Examples,4 Na + O2 →2 Na2O2 Ca + O2 →2 CaO4 Al +3 O2 →2 Al2O3, the transition metals are slower to oxidize because they form a passivating layer of oxide that protects the interior. Others, like palladium, platinum and gold, do not react with the atmosphere at all, some metals form a barrier layer of oxide on their surface which cannot be penetrated by further oxygen molecules and thus retain their shiny appearance and good conductivity for many decades. The oxides of metals are generally basic, as opposed to those of nonmetals, exceptions are largely oxides with very high oxidation states such as CrO3, Mn2O7, and OsO4, which have strictly acidic reactions. Painting, anodizing or plating metals are good ways to prevent their corrosion, however, a more reactive metal in the electrochemical series must be chosen for coating, especially when chipping of the coating is expected. Water and the two form an electrochemical cell, and if the coating is less reactive than the coatee. Metals in general have high conductivity, high thermal conductivity. Typically they are malleable and ductile, deforming under stress without cleaving, in terms of optical properties, metals are shiny and lustrous. Sheets of metal beyond a few micrometres in thickness appear opaque, although most metals have higher densities than most nonmetals, there is wide variation in their densities, lithium being the least dense solid element and osmium the densest
Metal
–
Gallium crystals
Metal
–
Hot metal work from a
blacksmith.
Metal
–
Zinc, a base metal, reacting with an acid
Metal
–
A gold nugget
3.
Chemical element
–
A chemical element or element is a species of atoms having the same number of protons in their atomic nuclei. There are 118 elements that have identified, of which the first 94 occur naturally on Earth with the remaining 24 being synthetic elements. There are 80 elements that have at least one stable isotope and 38 that have exclusively radioactive isotopes, iron is the most abundant element making up Earth, while oxygen is the most common element in the Earths crust. Chemical elements constitute all of the matter of the universe. The two lightest elements, hydrogen and helium, were formed in the Big Bang and are the most common elements in the universe. The next three elements were formed mostly by cosmic ray spallation, and are rarer than those that follow. Formation of elements with from 6 to 26 protons occurred and continues to occur in main sequence stars via stellar nucleosynthesis, the high abundance of oxygen, silicon, and iron on Earth reflects their common production in such stars. The term element is used for atoms with a number of protons as well as for a pure chemical substance consisting of a single element. A single element can form multiple substances differing in their structure, when different elements are chemically combined, with the atoms held together by chemical bonds, they form chemical compounds. Only a minority of elements are found uncombined as relatively pure minerals, among the more common of such native elements are copper, silver, gold, carbon, and sulfur. All but a few of the most inert elements, such as gases and noble metals, are usually found on Earth in chemically combined form. While about 32 of the elements occur on Earth in native uncombined forms. For example, atmospheric air is primarily a mixture of nitrogen, oxygen, and argon, the history of the discovery and use of the elements began with primitive human societies that found native elements like carbon, sulfur, copper and gold. Later civilizations extracted elemental copper, tin, lead and iron from their ores by smelting, using charcoal, alchemists and chemists subsequently identified many more, almost all of the naturally occurring elements were known by 1900. Save for unstable radioactive elements with short half-lives, all of the elements are available industrially, almost all other elements found in nature were made by various natural methods of nucleosynthesis. On Earth, small amounts of new atoms are produced in nucleogenic reactions, or in cosmogenic processes. Of the 94 naturally occurring elements, those with atomic numbers 1 through 82 each have at least one stable isotope, Isotopes considered stable are those for which no radioactive decay has yet been observed. Elements with atomic numbers 83 through 94 are unstable to the point that radioactive decay of all isotopes can be detected, the very heaviest elements undergo radioactive decay with half-lives so short that they are not found in nature and must be synthesized
Chemical element
Chemical element
–
Top: The
periodic table of the chemical elements. Below: Examples of certain chemical elements. From left to right:
hydrogen,
barium,
copper,
uranium,
bromine, and
helium.
Chemical element
Chemical element
4.
Value (economics)
–
Economic value is a measure of the benefit provided by a good or service to an economic agent. It is generally measured relative to units of currency, and the interpretation is therefore what is the amount of money a specific actor is willing. Note that economic value is not the same as market price, if a consumer is willing to buy a good, it implies that the customer places a higher value on the good than the market price. The difference between the value to the consumer and the price is called consumer surplus. It is easy to see situations where the value is considerably larger than the market price. The economic value of a good or service has puzzled economists since the beginning of the discipline, first, economists tried to estimate the value of a good to an individual alone, and extend that definition to goods which can be exchanged. From this analysis came the concepts value in use and value in exchange, Value is linked to price through the mechanism of exchange. When an economist observes an exchange, two important value functions are revealed, those of the buyer and seller. Just as the buyer reveals what he is willing to pay for a amount of a good. Additional information about market value is obtained by the rate at which transactions occur, said another way, value is how much a desired object or condition is worth relative to other objects or conditions. Economic values are expressed as how much of one condition or commodity will. Among the competing schools of economic theory there are differing metrics for value assessment, Value theories are a large part of the differences and disagreements between the various schools of economic theory. In neoclassical economics, the value of an object or service is seen as nothing but the price it would bring in an open. This is determined primarily by the demand for the relative to supply in a perfectly competitive market. Many neoclassical economic theories equate the value of a commodity with its price, as such, everything is seen as a commodity and if there is no market to set a price then there is no economic value. In classical economics, the value of an object or condition is the amount of discomfort/labor saved through the consumption or use of an object or condition. Though exchange value is recognized, economic value is not, in theory, dependent on the existence of a market and price and this is complicated, however, by the efforts of classical economists to connect price and labor value. In this tradition, Steve Keen makes the claim that value refers to the worth of a commodity
Value (economics)
–
Value or Price
Value (economics)
–
World GDP (PPP) per capita by country (2014)
5.
Noble metal
–
In chemistry, the noble metals are metals that are resistant to corrosion and oxidation in moist air. The short list of noble metals comprises ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, silver, osmium, iridium, platinum. More inclusive lists include one or more of mercury, rhenium, on the other hand, titanium, niobium, and tantalum are not included as noble metals although they are very resistant to corrosion. The term noble metal can be traced back to at least the late 14th century and has different meanings in different fields of study. Only in atomic physics is there a strict definition, which includes only copper, silver, for this reason there are many quite different lists of noble metals. In addition to this function as a compound noun, there are circumstances where noble is used as an adjective for the noun metal. A galvanic series is a hierarchy of metals that runs from noble to active, platinum, gold and mercury can be dissolved in aqua regia, a highly concentrated mixture of hydrochloric acid and nitric acid, but iridium and silver cannot. Palladium and silver are, however, soluble in nitric acid, ruthenium can be dissolved in aqua regia only when in the presence of oxygen, while rhodium must be in a fine pulverized form. Niobium and tantalum are resistant to all acids, including aqua regia, in physics, the definition of a noble metal is most strict. It requires that the d bands of the structure be filled. From this perspective, only copper, silver and gold are noble metals, as all d-like bands are filled, however, d-hybridized bands do cross the Fermi level to a small extent. In the case of platinum, two d bands cross the Fermi level, changing its chemical behaviour such that it can function as a catalyst. Metallic elements, including noble and non-noble metals, The columns group and period denote its position in the periodic table, the simplified reactions, listed in the next column, can also be read in detail from the Pourbaix diagrams of the considered element in water. Finally the column potential indicates the potential of the element measured against a Standard hydrogen electrode. All missing elements in this table are either not metals or have a standard potential. Arsenic, antimony and tellurium are considered to be a metalloids and thus cannot be noble metals. Also chemists and metallurgists consider copper and bismuth to not be noble metals because they easily oxidize due to the reaction O2 + 2 H 2O + 4e− ⇄ 4 OH− +0.40 V which is possible in moist air. The film of silver is due to its sensitivity to hydrogen sulfide
Noble metal
–
A
collection of the noble metals, including copper, rhenium and mercury, which are included by some definitions. These are arranged according to their position in the periodic table.
6.
Ductile
–
In materials science, ductility is a solid materials ability to deform under tensile stress, this is often characterized by the materials ability to be stretched into a wire. Malleability, a property, is a materials ability to deform under compressive stress. Both of these properties are aspects of plasticity, the extent to which a solid material can be plastically deformed without fracture. Also, these properties are dependent on temperature and pressure. Ductility and malleability are not always coextensive – for instance, while gold has high ductility and malleability, lead has low ductility, the word ductility is sometimes used to encompass both types of plasticity. Ductility is especially important in metalworking, as materials that crack, break or shatter under stress cannot be manipulated using metal-forming processes such as hammering, rolling, malleable materials can be formed cold using stamping or pressing, whereas brittle materials may be cast or thermoformed. High degrees of ductility occur due to bonds, which are found predominantly in metals. In metallic bonds valence shell electrons are delocalized and shared between many atoms, the delocalized electrons allow metal atoms to slide past one another without being subjected to strong repulsive forces that would cause other materials to shatter. Ductility can be quantified by the fracture strain ε f, which is the strain at which a test specimen fractures during a uniaxial tensile test. Another commonly used measure is the reduction of area at fracture q, the ductility of steel varies depending on the alloying constituents. Increasing levels of carbon decrease ductility, many plastics and amorphous solids, such as Play-Doh, are also malleable. The most ductile metal is platinum and the most malleable metal is gold, DBTT is important since, once a material is cooled below the DBTT, it has a much greater tendency to shatter on impact instead of bending or deforming. For example, zamak 3 exhibits good ductility at room temperature, DBTT is a very important consideration in selecting materials that are subjected to mechanical stresses. A similar phenomenon, the transition temperature, occurs with glasses and polymers. In some materials the transition is sharper than others and typically requires a temperature-sensitive deformation mechanism and this can be problematic for steels with a high ferrite content. This famously resulted in serious hull cracking in Liberty ships in colder waters during World War II, DBTT can also be influenced by external factors such as neutron radiation, which leads to an increase in internal lattice defects and a corresponding decrease in ductility and increase in DBTT. The most accurate method of measuring the DBTT of a material is by fracture testing, typically four point bend testing at a range of temperatures is performed on pre-cracked bars of polished material. For experiments conducted at higher temperatures, dislocation activity increases, the temperature at which this occurs is the ductile–brittle transition temperature
Ductile
–
Tensile test of an
AlMgSi alloy. The local necking and the cup and cone fracture surfaces are typical for ductile metals.
Ductile
–
This tensile test of a
nodular cast iron demonstrates low ductility.
Ductile
–
Gold leaf can be produced owing to gold's malleability.
7.
Lustre (mineralogy)
–
Lustre or luster is the way light interacts with the surface of a crystal, rock, or mineral. The word traces its origins back to the latin lux, meaning light, a range of terms are used to describe lustre, such as earthy, metallic, greasy, and silky. Similarly, the term refers to a glassy lustre. A list of terms is given below. Lustre varies over a continuum, and so there are no rigid boundaries between the different types of lustre. The terms are frequently combined to describe types of lustre. Some minerals exhibit unusual optical phenomena, such as asterism or chatoyancy, a list of such phenomena is given below. Adamantine minerals possess a superlative lustre, which is most notably seen in diamond, such minerals are transparent or translucent, and have a high refractive index. Minerals with an adamantine lustre are uncommon, with examples being cerussite. Minerals with a degree of lustre are referred to as subadamantine, with some examples being garnet. Dull minerals exhibit little to no lustre, due to coarse granulations which scatter light in all directions, a distinction is sometimes drawn between dull minerals and earthy minerals, with the latter being coarser, and having even less lustre. Greasy minerals resemble fat or grease, a greasy lustre often occurs in minerals containing a great abundance of microscopic inclusions, with examples including opal and cordierite. Many minerals with a greasy lustre also feel greasy to the touch, metallic minerals have the lustre of polished metal, and with ideal surfaces will work as a reflective surface. Examples include galena, pyrite and magnetite, pearly minerals consist of thin transparent co-planar sheets. Light reflecting from these layers give them a lustre reminiscent of pearls, such minerals possess perfect cleavage, with examples including muscovite and stilbite. Resinous minerals have the appearance of resin, chewing gum or plastic, a principal example is amber, which is a form of fossilized resin. Silky minerals have an arrangement of extremely fine fibres, giving them a lustre reminiscent of silk. Examples include asbestos, ulexite and the satin spar variety of gypsum, a fibrous lustre is similar, but has a coarser texture
Lustre (mineralogy)
–
Cut diamonds.
Lustre (mineralogy)
–
Kaolinite
Lustre (mineralogy)
–
Moss
opal
Lustre (mineralogy)
–
Pyrite
8.
Currency
–
A currency in the most specific use of the word refers to money in any form when in actual use or circulation as a medium of exchange, especially circulating banknotes and coins. A more general definition is that a currency is a system of money in common use, under this definition, US dollars, British pounds, Australian dollars, and European euros are examples of currency. These various currencies are recognized stores of value and are traded between nations in exchange markets, which determine the relative values of the different currencies. Currencies in this sense are defined by governments, and each type has limited boundaries of acceptance, other definitions of the term currency are discussed in their respective synonymous articles banknote, coin, and money. The latter definition, pertaining to the systems of nations, is the topic of this article. Currencies can be classified into two systems, fiat money and commodity money, depending on what guarantees the value. Some currencies are legal tender in certain jurisdictions, which means they cannot be refused as payment for debt. Others are simply traded for their economic value, digital currency has arisen with the popularity of computers and the Internet. Currency evolved from two basic innovations, both of which had occurred by 2000 BC, originally money was a form of receipt, representing grain stored in temple granaries in Sumer in ancient Mesopotamia, then Ancient Egypt. In this first stage of currency, metals were used as symbols to represent value stored in the form of commodities and this formed the basis of trade in the Fertile Crescent for over 1500 years. Trade could only reach as far as the credibility of that military and it is not known what was used as a currency for these exchanges, but it is thought that ox-hide shaped ingots of copper, produced in Cyprus, may have functioned as a currency. It is thought that the increase in piracy and raiding associated with the Bronze Age collapse, possibly produced by the Peoples of the Sea, brought the trading system of oxhide ingots to an end. In Africa, many forms of value store have been used, including beads, ingots, ivory, various forms of weapons, livestock, the manilla currency, the manilla rings of West Africa were one of the currencies used from the 15th century onwards to sell slaves. African currency is still notable for its variety, and in many various forms of barter still apply. These factors led to the metal itself being the store of value, first silver, now we have copper coins and other non-precious metals as coins. Metals were mined, weighed, and stamped into coins and this was to assure the individual taking the coin that he was getting a certain known weight of precious metal. Coins could be counterfeited, but they created a new unit of account. Most major economies using coinage had several tiers of coins, using a mix of copper, silver, gold coins were used for large purchases, payment of the military and backing of state activities, they were more often used as measures of account than physical coins
Currency
–
Cowry shells being used as money by an Arab trader.
Currency
–
Song dynasty Jiaozi, the world's earliest paper money.
9.
Commodity
–
In economics, a commodity is a marketable item produced to satisfy wants or needs. Economic commodities comprise goods and services, the word commodity came into use in English in the 15th century, from the French commodité, amenity, convenience. Going further back, the French word derives from the Latin commoditas, meaning suitability, convenience, the Latin word commodus meant variously appropriate, proper measure, time, or condition, and advantage, benefit. The term commodity is specifically used for a good or service when the demand for it has no qualitative differentiation across a market. In other words, a commodity good or service has full or partial but substantial fungibility, that is, the market treats its instances as equivalent or nearly so with no regard to who produced them. As the saying goes, From the taste of wheat, it is not possible to tell who produced it, a Russian serf, petroleum and copper are other examples of such commodities, their supply and demand being a part of one universal market. Items such as systems, on the other hand, have many aspects of product differentiation, such as the brand, the user interface. The demand for one type of stereo may be larger than demand for another. In contrast, one of the characteristics of a commodity good is that its price is determined as a function of its market as a whole, well-established physical commodities have actively traded spot and derivative markets. Generally, these are basic resources and agricultural products such as ore, sugar. Soft commodities are goods that are grown, while hard commodities are ones that are extracted through mining, there is another important class of energy commodities which includes electricity, gas, coal and oil. Electricity has the characteristic that it is usually uneconomical to store, hence. Commoditization occurs as a goods or services market loses differentiation across its supply base, as such, goods that formerly carried premium margins for market participants have become commodities, such as generic pharmaceuticals and DRAM chips. Following this trend, nanomaterials are emerging from carrying premium profit margins for market participants to a status of commodification, there is a spectrum of commoditization, rather than a binary distinction of commodity versus differentiable product. Many products degree of commoditization depends on the mentality and means. For example, milk, eggs, and notebook paper are not differentiated by many customers, for them, other customers take into consideration other factors besides price, such as environmental sustainability and animal welfare. This is a list of companies trading globally in commodities, descending by size as of October 28,2011, on a commodity exchange, it is the underlying standard stated in the contract that defines the commodity, not any quality inherent in a specific producers product. Commodities exchanges include, Bourse Africa Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Chicago Board of Trade Chicago Mercantile Exchange Dalian Commodity Exchange Euronext and these markets will quickly respond to changes in supply and demand to find an equilibrium price and quantity
Commodity
–
Yerba mate (left),
coffee bean (middle) and
tea (right), all used for
caffeinated infusions, are commodity
cash crops.
Commodity
Commodity
10.
Gold
–
Gold is a chemical element with symbol Au and atomic number 79. In its purest form, it is a bright, slightly yellow, dense, soft, malleable. Chemically, gold is a metal and a group 11 element. It is one of the least reactive chemical elements and is solid under standard conditions, Gold often occurs in free elemental form, as nuggets or grains, in rocks, in veins, and in alluvial deposits. It occurs in a solid solution series with the element silver and also naturally alloyed with copper. Less commonly, it occurs in minerals as gold compounds, often with tellurium, golds atomic number of 79 makes it one of the higher numbered, naturally occurring elements. It is thought to have produced in supernova nucleosynthesis, from the collision of neutron stars. Because the Earth was molten when it was formed, almost all of the present in the early Earth probably sank into the planetary core. Gold is resistant to most acids, though it does dissolve in aqua regia, a mixture of acid and hydrochloric acid. Gold also dissolves in solutions of cyanide, which are used in mining and electroplating. Gold dissolves in mercury, forming amalgam alloys, but this is not a chemical reaction, as a precious metal, gold has been used for coinage, jewelry, and other arts throughout recorded history. A total of 186,700 tonnes of gold is in existence above ground, the world consumption of new gold produced is about 50% in jewelry, 40% in investments, and 10% in industry. Gold is also used in infrared shielding, colored-glass production, gold leafing, certain gold salts are still used as anti-inflammatories in medicine. As of 2014, the worlds largest gold producer by far was China with 450 tonnes, Gold is cognate with similar words in many Germanic languages, deriving via Proto-Germanic *gulþą from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰelh₃-. The symbol Au is from the Latin, aurum, the Latin word for gold, the Proto-Indo-European ancestor of aurum was *h₂é-h₂us-o-, meaning glow. This word is derived from the root as *h₂éu̯sōs, the ancestor of the Latin word Aurora. This etymological relationship is presumably behind the frequent claim in scientific publications that aurum meant shining dawn, Gold is the most malleable of all metals, a single gram can be beaten into a sheet of 1 square meter, and an avoirdupois ounce into 300 square feet. Gold leaf can be thin enough to become semi-transparent
Gold
–
Gold, 79 Au
Gold
–
Moche gold necklace depicting feline heads.
Larco Museum Collection. Lima-Peru
Gold
–
Mirror for the future
James Webb Space Telescope coated in gold to reflect infrared light
Gold
–
The
world's largest gold bar has a mass of 250 kg.
Toi museum,
Japan.
11.
Silver
–
Silver is a metallic element with symbol Ag and atomic number 47. The symbol Ag stems from Latin argentum, derived from the Greek ὰργὀς, a soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. The metal is found in the Earths crust in the pure, free form, as an alloy with gold and other metals. Most silver is produced as a byproduct of copper, gold, lead, Silver is more abundant than gold, but it is much less abundant as a native metal. Its purity is measured on a per mille basis, a 94%-pure alloy is described as 0.940 fine. As one of the seven metals of antiquity, silver has had a role in most human cultures. Silver has long valued as a precious metal. Silver metal is used in many premodern monetary systems in bullion coins, Silver is used in numerous applications other than currency, such as solar panels, water filtration, jewelry, ornaments, high-value tableware and utensils, and as an investment medium. Silver is used industrially in electrical contacts and conductors, in specialized mirrors, window coatings, Silver compounds are used in photographic film and X-rays. Dilute silver nitrate solutions and other compounds are used as disinfectants and microbiocides, added to bandages and wound-dressings, catheters. Silver is similar in its physical and chemical properties to its two neighbours in group 11 of the periodic table, copper and gold. This distinctive electron configuration, with an electron in the highest occupied s subshell over a filled d subshell. Silver is a soft, ductile and malleable transition metal. Silver crystallizes in a cubic lattice with bulk coordination number 12. Unlike metals with incomplete d-shells, metallic bonds in silver are lacking a covalent character and are relatively weak and this observation explains the low hardness and high ductility of single crystals of silver. Silver has a brilliant white metallic luster that can take a polish. Protected silver has greater optical reflectivity than aluminium at all wavelengths longer than ~450 nm, at wavelengths shorter than 450 nm, silvers reflectivity is inferior to that of aluminium and drops to zero near 310 nm. The electrical conductivity of silver is the greatest of all metals, greater even than copper, during World War II in the US,13540 tons of silver were used in electromagnets for enriching uranium, mainly because of the wartime shortage of copper
Silver
–
Electrolytically refined silver
Silver
–
Silver 1000
oz t (~31 kg) bullion bar
Silver
–
Cessna 210 equipped with a silver iodide generator for
cloud seeding
Silver
–
A Canadian 50 cent piece from 1951, with King George the 6th on the obverse and Canada's (now former) coat of arms on the reverse. It is made of 80% silver and 20% copper.
12.
Platinum
–
Platinum is a chemical element with symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, precious and its name is derived from the Spanish term platina, translated into little silver. Platinum is a member of the group of elements and group 10 of the periodic table of elements. It has six naturally occurring isotopes and it is one of the rarer elements in Earths crust with an average abundance of approximately 5 μg/kg. It occurs in some nickel and copper ores along with some deposits, mostly in South Africa. Because of its scarcity in Earths crust, only a few hundred tonnes are produced annually, Platinum is one of the least reactive metals. It has remarkable resistance to corrosion, even at high temperatures, consequently, platinum is often found chemically uncombined as native platinum. Because it occurs naturally in the sands of various rivers. Platinum is used in catalytic converters, laboratory equipment, electrical contacts and electrodes, platinum resistance thermometers, dentistry equipment, and jewelry. Being a heavy metal, it leads to health issues upon exposure to its salts, compounds containing platinum, such as cisplatin, oxaliplatin and carboplatin, are applied in chemotherapy against certain types of cancer. Pure platinum is a lustrous, ductile, and malleable, silver-white metal, Platinum is more ductile than gold, silver or copper, thus being the most ductile of pure metals, but it is less malleable than gold. The metal has excellent resistance to corrosion, is stable at temperatures and has stable electrical properties. Platinum reacts with oxygen slowly at high temperatures. It reacts vigorously with fluorine at 500 °C to form platinum tetrafluoride and it is also attacked by chlorine, bromine, iodine, and sulfur. Platinum is insoluble in hydrochloric and nitric acid, but dissolves in hot aqua regia to form chloroplatinic acid and its physical characteristics and chemical stability make it useful for industrial applications. Its resistance to wear and tarnish is well suited to use in fine jewelry, the most common oxidation states of platinum are +2 and +4. The +1 and +3 oxidation states are common, and are often stabilized by metal bonding in bimetallic species. As is expected, tetracoordinate platinum compounds tend to adopt 16-electron square planar geometries, Platinum has six naturally occurring isotopes, 190Pt, 192Pt, 194Pt, 195Pt, 196Pt, and 198Pt
Platinum
–
Platinum, 78 Pt
Platinum
–
Platinum being dissolved in hot
aqua regia
Platinum
–
A native platinum nugget,
Kondyor mine,
Khabarovsk Krai
Platinum
–
Antonio de Ulloa is credited with the discovery of platinum.
13.
Palladium
–
Palladium is a chemical element with symbol Pd and atomic number 46. It is a rare and lustrous silvery-white metal discovered in 1803 by William Hyde Wollaston and he named it after the asteroid Pallas, which was itself named after the epithet of the Greek goddess Athena, acquired by her when she slew Pallas. Palladium, platinum, rhodium, ruthenium, iridium and osmium form a group of elements referred to as the platinum group metals and these have similar chemical properties, but palladium has the lowest melting point and is the least dense of them. More than half the supply of palladium and its congener platinum is used in catalytic converters, Palladium is also used in electronics, dentistry, medicine, hydrogen purification, chemical applications, groundwater treatment, and jewelry. Palladium is a key component of cells, which react hydrogen with oxygen to produce electricity, heat. Ore deposits of palladium and other PGMs are rare, recycling is also a source, mostly from scrapped catalytic converters. The numerous applications and limited supply sources result in considerable investment interest, Palladium belongs to group 10 in the periodic table, but the configuration in the outermost electron shells is atypical for group 10. Fewer electron shells are filled than the directly preceding it. The valence shell has eighteen electrons – ten more than the eight found in the shells of the noble gases from neon onward. Palladium is a soft metal that resembles platinum. It is the least dense and has the lowest melting point of the platinum group metals and it is soft and ductile when annealed and is greatly increased in strength and hardness when cold-worked. Palladium dissolves slowly in concentrated acid, in hot, concentrated sulfuric acid. It dissolves readily at room temperature in aqua regia, common oxidation states of palladium are 0, +1, +2 and +4. Palladium was first observed in 2002, Palladium films with defects produced by alpha particle bombardment at low temperature exhibit superconductivity having Tc=3.2 K. Naturally occurring palladium is composed of seven isotopes, six of which are stable, the most stable radioisotopes are 107Pd with a half-life of 6.5 million years, 103Pd with 17 days, and 100Pd with 3.63 days. Eighteen other radioisotopes have been characterized with atomic weights ranging from 90.94948 u to 122.93426 u and these have half-lives of less than thirty minutes, except 101Pd, 109Pd, and 112Pd. For isotopes with atomic mass unit values less than that of the most abundant stable isotope, 106Pd, the primary mode of decay for those isotopes of Pd with atomic mass greater than 106 is beta decay with the primary product of this decay being silver. Radiogenic 107Ag is a product of 107Pd and was first discovered in 1978 in the Santa Clara meteorite of 1976
Palladium
–
Palladium, 46 Pd
Palladium
–
Palladium(II) oxide forms on the surface of palladium when heated above 800 °C in air
Palladium
–
Palladium(II) chloride
Palladium
–
Palladium(II) acetate
14.
ISO 4217
–
The ISO4217 code list is used in banking and business globally. ISO4217 codes are used on tickets and international train tickets to remove any ambiguity about the price. The first two letters of the code are the two letters of the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country codes and the third is usually the initial of the currency itself, so Japans currency code is JPY—JP for Japan and Y for yen. This eliminates the problem caused by the dollar, franc, peso and pound being used in dozens of different countries. Also, if a currency is revalued, the currency codes last letter is changed to distinguish it from the old currency. Other changes can be seen, however, the Russian ruble, for example, changed from RUR to RUB and these currency units are denominated as one troy ounce of the specified metal as opposed to USD1 or EUR1. The code XTS is reserved for use in testing, the code XXX is used to denote a transaction involving no currency. There are also codes specifying certain monetary instruments used in international finance, the codes for most supranational currencies, such as the East Caribbean dollar, the CFP franc, the CFA franc BEAC and the CFA franc BCEAO. The predecessor to the euro, the European Currency Unit, had the code XEU, the use of an initial letter X for these purposes is facilitated by the ISO3166 rule that no official country code beginning with X will ever be assigned. Because of this rule ISO4217 can use X codes without risk of clashing with a country code. ISO3166 country codes beginning with X are used for private custom use, consequently, ISO4217 can use X codes for non-country-specific currencies without risk of clashing with future country codes. The inclusion of EU in the ISO 3166-1 reserved codes list, the ISO4217 standard includes a crude mechanism for expressing the relationship between a major currency unit and its corresponding minor currency unit. This mechanism is called the exponent and assumes a base of 10. For example, USD is equal to 100 of its currency unit the cent. So the USD has exponent 2, the code JPY is given the exponent 0, because its minor unit, the sen, although nominally valued at 1/100 of a yen, is of such negligible value that it is no longer used. Usually, as with the USD, the currency unit has a value that is 1/100 of the major unit, but in some cases 1/1000 is used. Mauritania does not use a decimal division of units, setting 1 ouguiya equal to 5 khoums, some currencies do not have any minor currency unit at all and these are given an exponent of 0, as with currencies whose minor units are unused due to negligible value. There is also a code number assigned to each currency
ISO 4217
–
An
airline ticket showing the price in the ISO 4217 code "
EUR " (bottom left) and not the
currency sign €
ISO 4217
–
A list of exchange rates for various base currencies given by a
money changer in Thailand, with the Thailand Baht as the counter (or quote) currency.
15.
Art
–
In their most general form these activities include the production of works of art, the criticism of art, the study of the history of art, and the aesthetic dissemination of art. The oldest documented forms of art are visual arts, which include creation of images or objects in fields including painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography, and other visual media. Music, theatre, film, dance, and other performing arts, as well as literature, until the 17th century, art referred to any skill or mastery and was not differentiated from crafts or sciences. Art may be characterized in terms of mimesis, expression, communication of emotion, during the Romantic period, art came to be seen as a special faculty of the human mind to be classified with religion and science. Though the definition of what art is disputed and has changed over time, general descriptions mention an idea of imaginative or technical skill stemming from human agency. The nature of art, and related such as creativity. One early sense of the definition of art is related to the older Latin meaning. English words derived from this meaning include artifact, artificial, artifice, medical arts, however, there are many other colloquial uses of the word, all with some relation to its etymology. Several dialogues in Plato tackle questions about art, Socrates says that poetry is inspired by the muses, and is not rational. He speaks approvingly of this, and other forms of divine madness in the Phaedrus, and yet in the Republic wants to outlaw Homers great poetic art, in Ion, Socrates gives no hint of the disapproval of Homer that he expresses in the Republic. For example, music imitates with the media of rhythm and harmony, whereas dance imitates with rhythm alone, the forms also differ in their object of imitation. Comedy, for instance, is an imitation of men worse than average. Lastly, the forms differ in their manner of imitation—through narrative or character, through change or no change, Aristotle believed that imitation is natural to mankind and constitutes one of mankinds advantages over animals. The second, and more recent, sense of the art as an abbreviation for creative art or fine art emerged in the early 17th century. The creative arts are a collection of disciplines which produce artworks that are compelled by a drive and convey a message, mood. Art is something that stimulates an individuals thoughts, emotions, beliefs, works of art can be explicitly made for this purpose or interpreted on the basis of images or objects. Often, if the skill is being used in a common or practical way, likewise, if the skill is being used in a commercial or industrial way, it may be considered commercial art instead of fine art. On the other hand, crafts and design are considered applied art
Art
–
Clockwise from upper left: a
self-portrait by
Vincent van Gogh; a female ancestor figure by a
Chokwe artist; detail from the
Birth of Venus by
Sandro Botticelli; and an Okinawan
Shisa lion.
Art
–
Works of art can tell stories or simply express an aesthetic truth or feeling. Panorama of a section of A Thousand Li of Mountains and Rivers, a 12th-century painting by Song dynasty artist
Wang Ximeng.
Art
–
20th-century Rwandan bottle. Artistic works may serve practical functions, in addition to their decorative value.
Art
–
Venus of Willendorf, circa 24,000–22,000
BP
16.
Jewellery
–
Jewellery or jewelry consists of small decorative items worn for personal adornment, such as brooches, rings, necklaces, earrings, and bracelets. Jewellery may be attached to the body or the clothes, for many centuries metal, often combined with gemstones, has been the normal material for jewellery, but other materials such as shells and other plant materials may be used. It is one of the oldest type of archaeological artefact – with 100, historically, the most widespread influence on jewellery in terms of design and style have come from Asia. Jewellery may be made from a range of materials. Gemstones and similar such as amber and coral, precious metals, beads, and shells have been widely used. In most cultures jewellery can be understood as a symbol, for its material properties, its patterns. Jewellery has been made to nearly every body part, from hairpins to toe rings. The word jewellery itself is derived from the jewel, which was anglicised from the Old French jouel. In British English, Indian English, New Zealand English, Hiberno-English, Australian English, both are used in Canadian English, though jewelry prevails by a two to one margin. Numerous cultures store wedding dowries in the form of jewellery or make jewellery as a means to store or display coins, alternatively, jewellery has been used as a currency or trade good, an example being the use of slave beads. Many items of jewellery, such as brooches and buckles, originated as functional items. Jewellery can also symbolise group membership or status, wearing of amulets and devotional medals to provide protection or ward off evil is common in some cultures. These may take the form of symbols, stones, plants, animals, body parts, in creating jewellery, gemstones, coins, or other precious items are often used, and they are typically set into precious metals. Alloys of nearly every metal known have been encountered in jewellery, bronze, for example, was common in Roman times. Modern fine jewellery usually includes gold, white gold, platinum, palladium, titanium, most contemporary gold jewellery is made of an alloy of gold, the purity of which is stated in karats, indicated by a number followed by the letter K. American gold jewellery must be of at least 10K purity, many whimsical fashions were introduced in the extravagant eighteenth century. Cameos that were used in connection with jewellery were the attractive trinkets along with many of the objects such as brooches, ear-rings. Some of the necklets were made of pieces joined with the gold chains were in and bracelets were also made sometimes to match the necklet
Jewellery
–
Amber pendants
Jewellery
–
Diamond temptation design
Jewellery
–
The Queen
Farida of Egypt red coral parure by Ascione manufacture, 1938, Naples,
Coral Jewellery Museum
Jewellery
–
The
Daria-i-Noor (meaning: Sea of Light) Diamond from the collection of the national jewels of Iran at
Central Bank of Islamic Republic of Iran
17.
Platinum group
–
The platinum-group metals are six noble, precious metallic elements clustered together in the periodic table. These elements are all transition metals in the d-block, the six platinum-group metals are ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, osmium, iridium, and platinum. They have similar physical and chemical properties, and tend to occur together in the mineral deposits. However they can be subdivided into the iridium-group platinum-group elements. The three elements above the group in the periodic table are all ferromagnetic, these being the only known transition metals with this property. Naturally occurring platinum and platinum-rich alloys were known by pre-Columbian Americans for many years, the Spaniards named the metal platina when they first encountered it in Colombia. They regarded platinum as an impurity in the silver they were mining. The platinum metals have many useful catalytic properties and they are highly resistant to wear and tarnish, making platinum, in particular, well suited for fine jewelry. Other distinctive properties include resistance to attack, excellent high-temperature characteristics. All these properties have been exploited for industrial applications, generally, ultramafic and mafic igneous rocks have relatively high, and granites low, PGE trace content. Geochemically anomalous traces occur predominantly in chromian spinels and sulfides, mafic and ultramafic igneous rocks host practically all primary PGM ore of the world. Mafic layered intrusions, including the Bushveld Complex, outweigh by far all other settings of platinum deposits. Other economically significant PGE deposits include mafic intrusions related to flood basalts, typical ores for PGMs contain ca.10 g PGM/ton ore, thus the identity of the particular mineral is unknown. Sperrylite ore is a source of this metal. A naturally occurring platinum-iridium alloy, platiniridium, is found in the mineral cooperite, platinum is also produced commercially as a by-product of nickel ore processing. The huge quantities of ore processed makes up for the fact that platinum makes up only two parts per million of the ore. South Africa, with vast platinum ore deposits in the Merensky Reef of the Bushveld complex, is the worlds largest producer of platinum, platinum and palladium are also mined commercially from the Stillwater igneous complex in Montana, USA. Leaders of primary production are South Africa and Russia, followed by Canada, Zimbabwe
Platinum group
–
Platinum–iridium bars
Platinum group
–
Process flow diagram for the separation of the platinum group metals.
18.
Ruthenium
–
Ruthenium is a chemical element with symbol Ru and atomic number 44. It is a transition metal belonging to the platinum group of the periodic table. Like the other metals of the group, ruthenium is inert to most other chemicals. The Baltic German scientist Karl Ernst Claus discovered the element in 1844 and named it after his homeland, ruthenium is usually found as a minor component of platinum ores, the annual production is about 20 tonnes. Most ruthenium produced is used in wear-resistant electrical contacts and thick-film resistors, a minor application for ruthenium is in platinum alloys and as a chemistry catalyst. This anomaly is observed in the metals, niobium, rhodium. Ruthenium has four crystal modifications and does not tarnish unless subject to high temperatures, ruthenium dissolves in fused alkalis to give ruthenates, is not attacked by acids but is attacked by halogens at high temperatures. Indeed, ruthenium is most readily attacked by oxidizing agents, small amounts of ruthenium can increase the hardness of platinum and palladium. The corrosion resistance of titanium is increased markedly by the addition of an amount of ruthenium. The metal can be plated by electroplating and by thermal decomposition, a ruthenium-molybdenum alloy is known to be superconductive at temperatures below 10.6 K. Like iron but unlike osmium, ruthenium can form aqueous cations in its lower oxidation states of +2, unlike the lighter congener iron, ruthenium is paramagnetic at room temperature, as iron also is above its Curie point. The reduction potentials in acidic aqueous solution for some common ruthenium ions are shown below, additionally,34 radioactive isotopes have been discovered. Of these radioisotopes, the most stable are 106Ru with a half-life of 373.59 days, 103Ru with a half-life of 39.26 days, fifteen other radioisotopes have been characterized with atomic weights ranging from 89.93 u to 114.928 u. Most of these have half-lives that are less than five minutes except 95Ru and 105Ru, the primary decay mode before the most abundant isotope, 102Ru, is electron capture and the primary mode after is beta emission. The primary decay product before 102Ru is technetium and the decay product after is rhodium. As the 74th most abundant element in Earths crust, ruthenium is relatively rare and this element is generally found in ores with the other platinum group metals in the Ural Mountains and in North and South America. Small but commercially important quantities are found in pentlandite extracted from Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. The native form of ruthenium is a rare mineral
Ruthenium
–
Ruthenium, 44 Ru
Ruthenium
–
Gas phase grown crystals of ruthenium metal.
Ruthenium
–
Tris(bipyridine)ruthenium(II) chloride.
19.
Rhodium
–
Rhodium is a chemical element with symbol Rh and atomic number 45. It is a rare, silvery-white, hard, and chemically inert transition metal and it is a member of the platinum group. It has only one naturally occurring isotope, 103Rh, naturally occurring rhodium is usually found as the free metal, alloyed with similar metals, and rarely as a chemical compound in minerals such as bowieite and rhodplumsite. It is one of the rarest and most valuable precious metals, Rhodium is a noble metal, resistant to corrosion, found in platinum or nickel ores together with the other members of the platinum group metals. The elements major use is as one of the catalysts in the catalytic converters in automobiles. White gold is often plated with a thin layer to improve its appearance while sterling silver is often rhodium-plated for tarnish resistance. Rhodium detectors are used in nuclear reactors to measure the neutron flux level, Rhodium was discovered in 1803 by William Hyde Wollaston, soon after his discovery of palladium. He used crude platinum ore presumably obtained from South America and his procedure involved dissolving the ore in aqua regia and neutralizing the acid with sodium hydroxide. He then precipitated the platinum as ammonium chloroplatinate by adding ammonium chloride, most other metals like copper, lead, palladium and rhodium were precipitated with zinc. Diluted nitric acid dissolved all but palladium and rhodium, of these, palladium dissolved in aqua regia but rhodium did not, and the rhodium was precipitated by the addition of sodium chloride as Na 3·nH 2O. After being washed with ethanol, the precipitate was reacted with zinc. After the discovery, the element had only minor applications, for example, by the turn of the century. The first major application was electroplating for decorative uses and as corrosion-resistant coating, the introduction of the three-way catalytic converter by Volvo in 1976 increased the demand for rhodium. The previous catalytic converters used platinum or palladium, while the catalytic converter used rhodium to reduce the amount of NOx in the exhaust. Rhodium is a hard, silvery, durable metal that has a high reflectance, Rhodium metal does not normally form an oxide, even when heated. Oxygen is absorbed from the only at the melting point of rhodium. Rhodium has both a melting point and lower density than platinum. It is not attacked by most acids, it is insoluble in nitric acid
Rhodium
–
Rhodium, 45 Rh
Rhodium
–
William Hyde Wollaston
Rhodium
–
A 78 g sample of rhodium
Rhodium
–
Cross section of a metal-core catalytic converter
20.
Osmium
–
Osmium is a chemical element with symbol Os and atomic number 76. It is a hard, brittle, bluish-white transition metal in the group that is found as a trace element in alloys. Osmium is the densest naturally occurring element, with a density of 22.59 g/cm3, Osmium has a blue-gray tint and is the densest stable element, approximately twice the density of lead and slightly denser than iridium. Calculations of density from the X-ray diffraction data may produce the most reliable data for these elements, Osmium is a hard but brittle metal that remains lustrous even at high temperatures. It has a very low compressibility, correspondingly, its bulk modulus is extremely high, reported between 395 and 462 GPa, which rivals that of diamond. The hardness of osmium is moderately high at 4 GPa, because of its hardness, brittleness, low vapor pressure, and very high melting point, solid osmium is difficult to machine, form, or work. Osmium forms compounds with oxidation states ranging from −2 to +8, the most common oxidation states are +2, +3, +4, and +8. The +8 oxidation state is notable for being the highest attained by any chemical element aside from iridiums +9 and is encountered only in xenon, ruthenium, hassium, and iridium. The oxidation states −1 and −2 represented by the two reactive compounds Na 2 and Na 2 are used in the synthesis of osmium cluster compounds, the most common compound exhibiting the +8 oxidation state is osmium tetroxide. This toxic compound is formed when powdered osmium is exposed to air and it is a very volatile, water-soluble, pale yellow, crystalline solid with a strong smell. Osmium powder has the smell of osmium tetroxide. Osmium tetroxide forms red osmates OsO 42−2 upon reaction with a base, with ammonia, it forms the nitrido-osmates OsO 3N−. Osmium tetroxide boils at 130 °C and is an oxidizing agent. By contrast, osmium dioxide is black, non-volatile, and much less reactive, Osmium pentafluoride is known, but osmium trifluoride has not yet been synthesized. The lower oxidation states are stabilized by the halogens, so that the trichloride, tribromide, triiodide. The oxidation state +1 is known only for osmium iodide, whereas several carbonyl complexes of osmium, such as triosmium dodecacarbonyl, in general, the lower oxidation states of osmium are stabilized by ligands that are good σ-donors and π-acceptors. The higher oxidation states are stabilized by strong σ- and π-donors, such as O2−, despite its broad range of compounds in numerous oxidation states, osmium in bulk form at ordinary temperatures and pressures resists attack by all acids and alkalis, including aqua regia. Osmium has seven naturally occurring isotopes, six of which are stable, 184Os, 187Os, 188Os, 189Os, 190Os, and 192Os
Osmium
–
Osmium, 76 Os
Osmium
–
Osmium, remelted pellet
Osmium
–
Native platinum containing traces of the other
platinum group metals
Osmium
–
Osmium crystals, grown by chemical vapor transport.
21.
Iridium
–
The Iridium satellite constellation is a satellite constellation providing voice and data coverage to satellite phones, pagers and integrated transceivers over the Earths entire surface. Iridium Communications owns and operates the constellation and sells equipment and access to its services, the constellation consists of 66 active satellites in orbit required for global coverage, and additional spare satellites to serve in case of failure. Satellites are in low Earth orbit at a height of approximately 485 mi, orbital velocity of the satellites is approximately 17,000 mph. Satellites communicate with neighboring satellites via Ka band inter-satellite links, each satellite can have four inter-satellite links, two to neighbors fore and aft in the same orbital plane, and two to satellites in neighboring planes to either side. The satellites orbit from pole to pole with an orbital period of roughly 100 minutes. This design means there is excellent satellite visibility and service coverage even at the North and South poles. The over-the-pole orbital design produces seams where satellites in counter-rotating planes next to one another are traveling in opposite directions, the constellation of 66 active satellites has 6 orbital planes spaced 30 degrees apart, with 11 satellites in each plane. This reduced set of 6 planes is sufficient to cover the entire Earths surface at every moment, because of the shape of the Iridium satellites reflective antennas, the satellites focus sunlight on a small area of the Earths surface in an incidental manner. This results in an effect called Iridium flares, where the satellite appears as one of the brightest objects in the night sky. The Iridium satellite constellation was conceived in the early 1990s, as a way to reach high Earth latitudes with reliable satellite communication services, early calculations showed that 77 satellites would be needed, hence the name Iridium – after the metal with atomic number 77. It turned out that just 66 were required to complete the blanket coverage of the planet with communication services, the constellation was launched to orbit in the late 1990s and the first telephone call was made over the network in 1998. However, although the system met its requirements, it was not a success in the market. Insufficient market demand existed for the product at the points on offer from Iridium as set by its parent company Motorola. The company failed to earn revenue sufficient to service the debt associated with building out the constellation and Iridium went bankrupt, the constellation continued following the bankruptcy of the original Iridium corporation. Users include journalists, explorers, and military units, the satellites each contain seven Motorola/Freescale PowerPC 603E processors running at roughly 200 MHz, connected by a custom backplane network. One processor is dedicated to each antenna, and two processors are dedicated to satellite control, one being a spare. Late in the project an extra processor was added to perform resource management, the cellular look down antenna has 48 spot beams arranged as 16 beams in three sectors. The four inter-satellite cross links on each operate at 10 Mbit/s
Iridium
–
Replica of an Iridium satellite
Iridium
22.
Bullion
–
Bullion is gold bars, silver bars, and other bars or ingots of precious metal. The word bullion comes from the French Minister of Finance under Louis XIII, the value of bullion is typically determined by the value of its precious metals content, which is defined by its purity and mass. It is also weighed extremely accurately, retailers may sometimes market ingots and bars of base metals, such as copper, nickel, and aluminium as bullion, but this is not a widely accepted definition. The specifications of bullion are often regulated by market bodies or legislation, in the European Union, the minimum purity for gold bullion, which is treated as investment gold with regards to taxation, is 99. 5% for gold bullion bars and 90% for bullion coins. The London bullion market is a market for wholesale trading of gold. The London Bullion Market Association coordinates activities of its members and other participants in the London bullion market, the LBMA sets and promotes quality standards for gold and silver bullion bars. The minimum acceptable fineness of the Good Delivery Bars is 99. 5% for gold bars and 99. 9% for silver bars, Bullion coins describe contemporary precious metal coins minted by official agencies for investment purposes. Historically, most currency were in the form of coins, silver. Some bullion coins have been used as currency throughout the 20th century, like the Maria Theresa thaler, however, modern bullion coins generally do not enter common circulation despite having legal tender status and a nominal face value. Some modern bullion coins, such as the gold and silver American eagle, are produced as both business strike and collectible proof and uncirculated versions. Business strikes typically are sold at prices commensurate with their precious metal content, in some cases the grade and mintages of business strike coins can affect their value, so that they are considered numismatic rather than bullion items. A range of market participants is active in the bullion markets, banks, fabricators, refiners. They provide facilities for the refining, melting, assaying, transporting, trading and vaulting of gold, for example, shares of the world’s largest Gold exchange-traded fund, the SPDR Gold Shares represent ownership in vaulted gold bullion. Private individuals use bullion primarily as an investment or potential store of value, Gold bullion and silver bullion are the most important forms of physical precious metals investments. Bullion investments can be considered as insurance against inflation or economic turmoil, compared to numismatic coins, bullion bars or bullion coins can typically be purchased and traded at lower margins and their trading prices are closer to the values of the contained precious metals
Bullion
–
Gold bars, the typical form of bullion
23.
Commodity market
–
A commodity market is a market that trades in primary economic sector rather than manufactured products. Soft commodities are products such as wheat, coffee, cocoa. Hard commodities are mined, such as gold and oil, Investors access about 50 major commodity markets worldwide with purely financial transactions increasingly outnumbering physical trades in which goods are delivered. Futures contracts are the oldest way of investing in commodities, Futures are secured by physical assets. Commodity markets can include physical trading and derivatives trading using spot prices, forwards, futures, farmers have used a simple form of derivative trading in the commodity market for centuries for price risk management. A financial derivative is an instrument whose value is derived from a commodity termed an underlier. Derivatives are either exchange-traded or over-the-counter, derivatives such as futures contracts, Swaps, Exchange-traded Commodities, forward contracts have become the primary trading instruments in commodity markets. Futures are traded on regulated commodities exchanges, Over-the-counter contracts are privately negotiated bilateral contracts entered into between the contracting parties directly. Exchange-traded funds began to feature commodities in 2003, Gold ETFs are based on electronic gold that does not entail the ownership of physical bullion, with its added costs of insurance and storage in repositories such as the London bullion market. According to the World Gold Council, ETFs allow investors to be exposed to the market without the risk of price volatility associated with gold as a physical commodity. Commodity-based money and commodity markets in an early form are believed to have originated in Sumer between 4500 BC and 4000 BC. Sumerians first used clay tokens sealed in a vessel, then clay writing tablets to represent the amount—for example. These promises of time and date of delivery resemble futures contract, early civilizations variously used pigs, rare seashells, or other items as commodity money. Since that time traders have sought ways to simplify and standardize trade contracts, Gold and silver markets evolved in classical civilizations. At first the precious metals were valued for their beauty and intrinsic worth and were associated with royalty, in time, they were used for trading and were exchanged for other goods and commodities, or for payments of labor. Gold, measured out, then became money, golds scarcity, unique density and the way it could be easily melted, shaped, and measured made it a natural trading asset. Beginning in the late 10th century, commodity markets grew as a mechanism for allocating goods, labor, land, indeed, the Amsterdam Stock Exchange, often cited as the first stock exchange, originated as a market for the exchange of commodities. Early trading on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange often involved the use of sophisticated contracts, including short sales, forward contracts
Commodity market
–
Financial markets
Commodity market
–
Chicago Board of Trade Futures market
24.
Ingot
–
An ingot is a piece of relatively pure material, usually metal, that is cast into a shape suitable for further processing. In steelmaking, it is the first step among semi-finished casting products, Ingots usually require a second procedure of shaping, such as cold/hot working, cutting, or milling to produce a useful final product. Non-metallic and semiconductor materials prepared in bulk form may also be referred to as ingots, precious metal ingots can be used as currency, or as a currency reserve, as with gold bars. Metal, either pure or alloy, heated past its melting point, a special case are polycrystalline or single crystal ingots made by pulling from a molten melt. Single crystal ingots of materials are grown using methods such as the Czochralski process or Bridgeman technique, the boules may be either semiconductors or non-conducting inorganic compounds for industrial and jewelry use. Single crystal ingots of metal are produced in similar fashion to that used to high purity semiconductor ingots. Single crystal ingots of engineering metals are of interest due to their high strength due to lack of grain boundaries. The method of production is via single crystal dendrite and not via simple casting, in the United States, the brass and bronze ingot making industry started in the early 19th century. The US brass industry grew to be the number one producer by the 1850s, during colonial times the brass and bronze industries were almost non-existent because the British demanded all copper ore be sent to Britain for processing. Copper based alloy ingots weighed approximately 20 pounds, Ingots are manufactured by the freezing of a molten liquid in a mold. The manufacture of ingots has several aims, secondly, the shape and size of the mold is designed to allow for ease of ingot handling and downstream processing. Finally the mold is designed to minimize melt wastage and aid ejection of the ingot, a variety of designs exist for the mold, which may be selected to suit the physical properties of the liquid melt and the solidification process. Molds may exist in top, horizontal or bottom-up pouring and may be fluted or flat walled, the fluted design increases heat transfer owing to a larger contact area. Molds may be either solid massive design, sand cast or water-cooled shells, ingot molds are tapered to prevent the formation of cracks due to uneven cooling. Crack or void formation occurs as the liquid to solid transition has a volume change for a constant mass of material. Formation of these defects may render the cast ingot useless. The physical structure of a material is largely determined by the method of cooling. The rate of front advancement controls the time that dendrites or nuclei have to form in the solidification region, the width of the mushy zone in an alloy may be controlled by tuning the heat transfer properties of the mold, or adjusting the liquid melt alloy compositions
Ingot
–
Aluminum ingot after ejection from mold
Ingot
–
Teeming ingots at a steel mill
Ingot
–
Ancient copper ingot from Zakros,
Crete. The ingot is shaped in the form of an animal skin, a typical shape of copper ingots from these times.
Ingot
–
The mold of the
Ancient Chinese gold and silver
sycee, measured in
tael. One of the Chinese names is 金元寶(jīn yuán bǎo), and written as 金元宝 in simplified Chinese.
25.
Coin
–
A coin is a small, flat, round piece of metal or plastic used primarily as a medium of exchange or legal tender. They are standardized in weight, and produced in quantities at a mint in order to facilitate trade. They are most often issued by a government, Coins are usually metal or alloy, or sometimes made of synthetic materials. Coins made of metal are stored in large quantities as bullion coins. Other coins are used as money in transactions, circulating alongside banknotes. Usually the highest value coin in circulation is less than the lowest-value note. In the last hundred years, the value of circulation coins has occasionally been lower than the value of the metal they contain. Exceptions to the rule of face value being higher than content value also occur for some bullion coins made of copper, silver, or gold, while the Eagle, Maple Leaf, and Sovereign coins have nominal face values, the Krugerrand does not. The first coins were developed independently in Iron Age Anatolia and Archaic Greece, India, Coins spread rapidly in the 6th and 5th centuries BCE, throughout Greece and Persia, and further to the Balkans. Standardized Roman currency was used throughout the Roman Empire, important Roman gold and silver coins were continued into the Middle Ages. Fiat money first arose in medieval China, with the paper money. Early paper money was introduced in Europe in the later Middle Ages, the penny was minted as a silver coin until the 17th century. The first circulating United States coins were cents, produced in 1793, Coins were an evolution of currency systems of the Late Bronze Age, where standard-sized ingots, and tokens such as knife money, were used to store and transfer value. In the late Chinese Bronze Age, standardized cast tokens were made and these were replicas in bronze of earlier Chinese currency, cowrie shells, so they were named Bronze Shell. According to Aristotle and Pollux, the first issuer of coins was Hermodike of Kyme The earliest coins are associated with Iron Age Anatolia. Early electrum coins were not standardized in weight, and in their earliest stage may have been ritual objects, such as badges or medals, issued by priests. The first Lydian coins were made of electrum, a naturally occurring alloy of silver, most of the early Lydian coins include no writing, only an image of a symbolic animal. Anatolian Artemis was the Πὀτνια Θηρῶν, whose symbol was the stag, a small percentage of early Lydian/Greek coins have a legend
Coin
–
A
Swiss ten-cent coin from 1879, similar to the oldest coins still in official use today
Coin
–
An original Celtic
Biatec coin and its replica on a former Slovak 5-
koruna coin (1993-2008)
Coin
–
An
oxhide ingot from
Crete.
Late Bronze Age metal ingots were given standard shapes, such as the shape of an "ox-hide", suggesting that they represented standardized values.
Coin
–
1/3rd
stater from
Lydia, 6th century BCE
26.
Face value
–
The face value is the value of a coin, stamp or paper money, as printed on the coin, stamp or bill itself by the issuing authority. The face value of coins, stamps, or bill is usually its legal value, however, their market value need not bear any relationship to the face value. For example, some coins or stamps may be traded at prices considerably above their face value. The face value of bonds usually represents the principal or redemption value, interest payments are expressed as a percentage of face value. Before maturity, the value of a bond may be greater or less than face value, depending on the interest rate payable. As bonds approach maturity, actual value approaches face value, in the case of stock certificates, face value is the par value of the stock. In the case of stock, par value is largely symbolic. In the case of preferred stock, dividends may be expressed as a percentage of par value, the face value of a life insurance policy is the death benefit. In the case of so-called double indemnity life insurance policies, the beneficiary receives double the value in case of accidental death. The face value of property, casualty or health insurance policies is the amount payable. Face value can be used to refer to the apparent value of something other than a financial instrument, in this context, face value refers to the apparent merits of the idea, before the concept or plan has been tested. Face value also refers to the price printed on a ticket to an event, concert. In many jurisdictions, re-selling tickets for more than face value constitutes ticket scalping and is illegal, taking someone at face value is assuming another persons suggestion, offer, or proposal is sincere, rather than a bargaining ploy. Denomination Nominal value Melt value Par value Place value
Face value
–
A Romanian stamp from 1947 showing a face value of 12 Lei.
27.
Money
–
The main functions of money are distinguished as, a medium of exchange, a unit of account, a store of value, and, sometimes, a standard of deferred payment. Any item or verifiable record that fulfills these functions can be considered as money, Money is historically an emergent market phenomenon establishing a commodity money, but nearly all contemporary money systems are based on fiat money. Fiat money, like any check or note of debt, is without use value as a physical commodity. It derives its value by being declared by a government to be legal tender, the money supply of a country consists of currency and, depending on the particular definition used, one or more types of bank money. Bank money, which consists only of records, forms by far the largest part of money in developed countries. The word money is believed to originate from a temple of Juno, in the ancient world Juno was often associated with money. The temple of Juno Moneta at Rome was the place where the mint of Ancient Rome was located, the name Juno may derive from the Etruscan goddess Uni and Moneta either from the Latin word monere or the Greek word moneres. In the Western world, a prevalent term for coin-money has been specie, stemming from Latin in specie, meaning in kind. The use of methods may date back to at least 100,000 years ago. Instead, non-monetary societies operated largely along the principles of gift economy, when barter did in fact occur, it was usually between either complete strangers or potential enemies. Many cultures around the world eventually developed the use of commodity money, the Mesopotamian shekel was a unit of weight, and relied on the mass of something like 160 grains of barley. The first usage of the came from Mesopotamia circa 3000 BC. Societies in the Americas, Asia, Africa and Australia used shell money – often, according to Herodotus, the Lydians were the first people to introduce the use of gold and silver coins. It is thought by scholars that these first stamped coins were minted around 650–600 BC. The system of commodity money eventually evolved into a system of representative money and this occurred because gold and silver merchants or banks would issue receipts to their depositors – redeemable for the commodity money deposited. Eventually, these became generally accepted as a means of payment and were used as money. Paper money or banknotes were first used in China during the Song Dynasty and these banknotes, known as jiaozi, evolved from promissory notes that had been used since the 7th century. However, they did not displace commodity money, and were used alongside coins, in the 13th century, paper money became known in Europe through the accounts of travelers, such as Marco Polo and William of Rubruck
Money
–
A 640 BC one-third
stater electrum coin from
Lydia
Money
–
A sample picture of a fictional ATM card. The largest part of the world's money exists only as accounting numbers which are transferred between financial computers. Various plastic cards and other devices give individual consumers the power to electronically transfer such money to and from their bank accounts, without the use of currency.
Money
–
Song Dynasty Jiaozi, the world's earliest paper money
Money
–
Printing paper money at a printing press in Perm
28.
Johnson Matthey
–
Johnson Matthey is a British multinational speciality chemicals and sustainable technologies company headquartered in the United Kingdom. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and has been a constituent of the FTSE100 Index since 2002, Johnson Matthey traces its origins to 1817, when Percival Norton Johnson set up business as a gold assayer in London. In 1851 George Matthey joined the business and its name was changed to Johnson & Matthey, the following year the firm was appointed Official Assayer & Refiner to the Bank of England. In 1874, the company was commissioned to manufacture the kilogram reference standard, made from 90% platinum and 10% iridium, beginning in 1957, the company published a journal, Platinum Metals Review. In the 1960s Johnson Matthey formed a subsidiary, Johnson Matthey Bankers, in the early 1980s the bank expanded its activities outside the bullion business and started making high-risk loans. The quality of some of these turned out to be worse than expected. The size of the loans grew to exceed the level of the banks capital, to prevent a wider banking crisis the Bank of England organized a rescue package on the evening of 30 September 1984, purchasing JMB for £1. Most of JMBs business was sold to Mase Westpac. In 1989, worldwide annual turnover of Johnson Matthey was £1.43 billion, with plants in Evere, Wayne. In 2008 Johnson Matthey acquired Argillon, a business specialising in catalysts, in October 2010 Johnson Matthey acquired InterCAT, a supplier of fluid catalytic cracking additives for the petroleum refining industry, for $56.2 million. Today, around one third of all cars worldwide are fitted with a Johnson Matthey catalyst, process Technologies supplies catalysts, licenses technologies and delivers other services to the petrochemical, syngas, oil refining and gas processing industries. Precious Metal Products manages, distributes, refines and recycles precious metals and fabricates products using precious metals, Johnson Matthey offers seven metal separation of gold, silver, platinum, palladium, rhodium, iridium and ruthenium. Products include advanced coatings for glass manufacture, catalysts for the production of nitric acid, fine Chemicals supplies active pharmaceutical ingredients and catalysis and chiral technologies to the pharmaceutical, fine chemical and agrochemical industries. It is also a globally integrated supplier of research chemicals under the Alfa Aesar brand name, new Businesses targets new opportunities in areas adjacent to the company’s current businesses and which align with its core technology competencies. This division includes Johnson Matthey Fuel Cells and Johnson Matthey Battery Technologies, Johnson Matthey identifies Sustainability as an integral part of its growth strategy and a key driver for its competitiveness. In 2007 Johnson Matthey set itself six targets to achieve by 2017, in 2013/14 Johnson Matthey reported a reduction in carbon intensity to 149 tonnes CO2 equivalent / £ million sales. As a result of Johnson Matthey’s nitrous oxide abatement catalysts more than 64 million tonnes CO2 equivalent of N2O has been prevented from entering the atmosphere, the violation related to the selective screening of wastewater samples for compliance analysis. Following the charge Johnson Matthey Inc contributed $750,000 to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Official site London Stock Exchange profile Yahoo
Johnson Matthey
–
Johnson Matthey
29.
Alloy
–
An alloy is a mixture of metals or a mixture of a metal and another element. Alloys are defined by a metallic bonding character, an alloy may be a solid solution of metal elements or a mixture of metallic phases. Intermetallic compounds are alloys with a stoichiometry and crystal structure. Zintl phases are sometimes considered alloys depending on bond types. Alloys are used in a variety of applications. In some cases, a combination of metals may reduce the overall cost of the material while preserving important properties, in other cases, the combination of metals imparts synergistic properties to the constituent metal elements such as corrosion resistance or mechanical strength. Examples of alloys are steel, solder, brass, pewter, duralumin, bronze, the alloy constituents are usually measured by mass. Alloys are usually classified as substitutional or interstitial alloys, depending on the arrangement that forms the alloy. They can be classified as homogeneous, or heterogeneous or intermetallic. An alloy is a mixture of elements, which forms an impure substance that retains the characteristics of a metal. Alloys are made by mixing two or more elements, at least one of which is a metal and this is usually called the primary metal or the base metal, and the name of this metal may also be the name of the alloy. The other constituents may or may not be metals but, when mixed with the base, they will be soluble. The mechanical properties of alloys will often be different from those of its individual constituents. A metal that is very soft, such as aluminium, can be altered by alloying it with another soft metal. Although both metals are soft and ductile, the resulting aluminium alloy will have much greater strength. Adding a small amount of carbon to iron trades its great ductility for the greater strength of an alloy called steel. Due to its strength, but still substantial toughness, and its ability to be greatly altered by heat treatment, steel is one of the most useful. By adding chromium to steel, its resistance to corrosion can be enhanced, creating stainless steel, while adding silicon will alter its electrical characteristics, producing silicon steel
Alloy
–
Liquid
bronze, being poured into molds during casting.
Alloy
–
Wire rope made from
steel, which is a metal alloy whose major component is
iron, with
carbon content between 0.02% and 2.14% by mass.
Alloy
–
A
brass lamp.
Alloy
–
A gate valve, made from
Inconel.
30.
Krugerrand
–
For the Ian McNabb album, see Krugerrands. The Krugerrand is a South African gold coin, first minted in 1967 to help market South African gold, by 1980 the Krugerrand accounted for 90% of the global gold coin market. The name itself is a compound of Kruger and rand, the South African unit of currency, during the 1970s and 1980s some Western countries forbade import of the Krugerrand because of its association with the apartheid government of South Africa. Production levels of Krugerrands have significantly varied during the last 50 years, during 1967–1969, around 40,000 coins were minted each year. In 1970, the rose to over 200,000 coins. More than one million coins were produced in 1974, and in 1978 a total of six million Krugerrands were produced. Following the end of apartheid, the production dropped to 23,277 coins in 1998 and since then levels have increased again, the Krugerrand was introduced in 1967 as a vehicle for private ownership of gold. It was minted in a more durable copper-gold alloy than pure gold, economic sanctions against South Africa for its policy of apartheid made the Krugerrand an illegal import in many Western countries during the 1970s and 1980s. These sanctions ended when South Africa abandoned apartheid in 1994, by 1980 the Krugerrand accounted for 90% of the global gold coin market. That year South Africa introduced three smaller coins with a half ounce, quarter ounce, and tenth ounce of gold. Krugerrand coins containing 50 million ounces of gold have been sold, during the great bull market in gold of the 1970s, the gold Krugerrand quickly became the No.1 choice for investors worldwide wanting to buy gold. Between 1974 and 1985, it is estimated that 22 million gold Krugerrand coins were imported into the United States alone, private mints have also attempted minting gold and silver bullion rounds in the style of the Krugerrand. The rounds often depict Paul Kruger and an antelope, some even blatantly copying the design of the Krugerrands themselves. The Krugerrand is 32.77 mm in diameter and 2.84 mm thick, the Krugerrands actual weight is 1.0909 troy ounces. It is minted from gold alloy that is 91. 67% pure, the remaining 8. 33% of the coins weight is copper, which gives the Krugerrand a more orange appearance than silver-alloyed gold coins. Copper alloy coins are harder and more durable, so they can resist scratches, the coin is so named because the obverse, designed by Otto Schultz, bears the face of Boer statesman Paul Kruger, four-term president of the old South African Republic. The reverse depicts a springbok, one of the symbols of South Africa. The image was designed by Coert Steynberg, and was used on the reverse of the earlier South African five shilling coin
Krugerrand
–
Krugerrand
