Economics Questions

Re: Gold and Silver are often stated as perfect metals for use as money. Would Platinum and Palladium work?

Wanderer — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 05:00:28 GMT

wombatron:

Perhaps platinum will be used as money in a future space-based society. IIRC, platinum group metals are relatively common (compared to gold and silver) on M-type asteroids, and assuming it retains a generally high market price compared to its mass, it wouldn't take much delta-v to lug large amounts around, compared to the alternatives.

/space cadet rambling

Ooooooh, very interesting, I did not know that...

Re: Gold and Silver are often stated as perfect metals for use as money. Would Platinum and Palladium work?

wombatron — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 22:18:45 GMT

liberty student:
Very true. In the jewelry trade, platinum never caught on, I suspect partly because it is so expensive, and then because it looks too much like silver to the untrained eye.

Perhaps platinum will be used as money in a future space-based society. IIRC, platinum group metals are relatively common (compared to gold and silver) on M-type asteroids, and assuming it retains a generally high market price compared to its mass, it wouldn't take much delta-v to lug large amounts around, compared to the alternatives.

/space cadet rambling

Re: Gold and Silver are often stated as perfect metals for use as money. Would Platinum and Palladium work?

Wanderer — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 22:08:27 GMT

Thanks guys :D

Re: Gold and Silver are often stated as perfect metals for use as money. Would Platinum and Palladium work?

liberty student — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 17:32:04 GMT

E. R. Olovetto:
1. I am guessing the reason you hear about gold and silver more is that there is a much broader history of those metals in use.

Very true. In the jewelry trade, platinum never caught on, I suspect partly because it is so expensive, and then because it looks too much like silver to the untrained eye.

Re: Gold and Silver are often stated as perfect metals for use as money. Would Platinum and Palladium work?

E. R. Olovetto — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 16:43:53 GMT

1. I am guessing the reason you hear about gold and silver more is that there is a much broader history of those metals in use.

2. I suspect that true free markets would use platinum or whatever more rare metals, maybe more between banks than in circulation, or using "$1 bills" worth a speck of palladium.

3. I think a free market for currency means whatever commodity could be used in exchange, maybe petro-dollars. Vegetable-oil-dollars would be less likely because of the effort required to warehouse significant values (plus it probably goes rancid and gold doesn't).

Gold and Silver are often stated as perfect metals for use as money. Would Platinum and Palladium work?

Wanderer — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 15:29:31 GMT

Both Platinum and Palladium are made into coins http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platinum_coin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palladium_coin

Is there any particular reason Gold and Silver are talked about and those two are excluded?