# Selling platinum

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/selling-platinum/846412>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 14, 2020, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/selling-platinum/846412 "2020-01-14T16:42:26Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\
**Post date:** [January 14, 2020, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/selling-platinum/846412/1 "2020-01-14T16:42:26Z")

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If you have some gold to sell, you can usually take it to a coin shop. Pawn or jewellery shops too, but they usually won’t pay as well. If you come across a large nugget, weighing several pounds so that it’s worth tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, it’s probably be best to take it to the mint, since a coin shop won’t have that kind of money on hand.

What do you do for platinum? You find a large nugget of native platinum, where can you take it to sell?

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**Author:** ![Dickerman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8baadc/32.png) [@Dickerman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dickerman)\
**Post date:** [January 14, 2020, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/selling-platinum/846412/2 "2020-01-14T17:26:23Z")

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When I salvaged some bits of platinum/iridium wire that I collected for several years from some electrodes used in medicine, I was offered spot gold prices, which at the time was less than platinum. But it amounted to less than an ounce, so that probably figured into it. I bet for larger amounts you could get closer to spot platinum, which is currently less than gold. The place I took it was a local metals dealer, but coin dealers often deal in various forms of precious metals.

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**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\
**Post date:** [January 14, 2020, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/selling-platinum/846412/3 "2020-01-14T17:41:24Z")

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There are dealers who specialize in this, for example:

> **[Platinum Buyers & Brokers | Platinum Refiners | Midwest Refineries LLC](https://www.midwestrefineries.com/platinum-buyers-brokers/)**
>
> Platinum refiner to sell all grades of thermocouple wire, platinum crucibles and laboratory utensils, medical platinum scrap buyers, smelters of industrial platinum flake, recycler and refinery to sell platinum bullion, coins and bars. Payable...

I believe they have a good reputation. They also deal in gold and silver (from jewelry…).

If you have platinum rounds there are several online bullion dealers who usually offer better prices than local dealers.

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**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\
**Post date:** [January 14, 2020, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/selling-platinum/846412/4 "2020-01-14T18:33:55Z")

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Gold nuggets are worth much more as collector’s items then their actual gold content. I would assume the same goes for platinum.

Dennis

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**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\
**Post date:** [January 14, 2020, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/selling-platinum/846412/5 "2020-01-14T20:24:41Z")

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> [@mixdenny](#):
>
> Gold nuggets are worth much more as collector’s items then their actual gold content.

That’s probably not true of [this one](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welcome_Stranger).