Platinum Price Today – Live Chart and Calculator

Platinum is mined mainly in South Africa, and production is concentrated in a handful of mines. That makes the market sensitive to strikes and power cuts. Demand comes mainly from diesel catalytic converters, the chemical industry and hydrogen technology.

Platinum in jewellery

Platinum jewellery is almost always 950 — that is, 95% pure platinum. The metal is heavier than gold, so a platinum ring weighs more than the equivalent in 18 carat gold and feels noticeably more solid.

Platinum is typically traded in two main finenesses in the jewellery industry: 950‰ and 900‰. 950 platinum, also called Pt950, contains 95% pure platinum alloyed with metals such as ruthenium or cobalt to achieve sufficient hardness for jewellery making, and is the most common standard for rings and other jewellery in Western Europe. 900 platinum contains 90% pure platinum and is also used, but is less common in Denmark than 950. Under Danish law, the minimum requirement for an item to be marketed as platinum is 500‰, which differs from gold and silver in being relatively close to the actually used trading standards.

Calculating platinum content follows the same principle as for gold and silver: grams × fineness as a decimal gives the pure platinum content. A 6-gram ring stamped 950 therefore contains 5.7 grams of pure platinum. Because platinum has a higher density than gold, a platinum item will often weigh more than an equivalent gold item of the same size, which is worth remembering when comparing items by appearance alone.

The platinum price, like gold and silver, is set globally in US dollars per troy ounce and converted to Danish kroner per gram using the same formula: (spot price USD ÷ 31.1035) × USD/DKK rate. The platinum market is generally less liquid than the gold and silver markets, and price fluctuations can therefore be relatively larger at times, which consumers should be aware of when comparing offers over time.

Palladium is used both as a standalone jewellery metal, typically at 950‰ fineness, and as an alloying component in 'white gold', where it is added to gold to produce a lighter, silvery colour. It is important to distinguish between pure palladium jewellery, stamped Pd950, and white gold, which still primarily consists of gold with palladium or other white metals as alloying components, because the price calculation differs greatly: for white gold, value is calculated from the gold content, not the palladium content, even though the metal appears white or silvery.

Danish law sets a minimum requirement of 500‰ for an item to be marketed as palladium, which is lower than the requirement for platinum. In practice, however, 950 is typically used as the trading standard for pure palladium jewellery, while lower finenesses are rare in Danish retail. Palladium has historically experienced significant price fluctuations due to industrial demand, particularly from the automotive industry, making the metal more price-volatile than gold and silver.

When assessing a white jewellery item, it is crucial to establish whether it is pure palladium, platinum, or rhodium-plated white gold, as these have vastly different market prices and calculation bases. A visual assessment is not sufficient, since platinum, palladium, and rhodium-plated white gold can all look very similar. The stamp, supplemented if necessary by a professional test, is therefore the only reliable way to determine the actual composition.

Platinum and palladium have different market dynamics than gold and silver, because a very large share of demand comes from industrial use, particularly catalytic converters in the car and truck industry. This means prices for these metals can at times react more strongly to changes in industrial demand or supply chains than to traditional investment demand, potentially causing larger and faster price swings than typically seen for gold.

For consumers wishing to sell platinum or palladium jewellery, the lower market liquidity often means fewer dealers actively trade these metals compared to gold and silver, which can result in fewer offers to compare and potentially larger spreads between buy and sell price. It can therefore be a good idea to obtain quotes from several different types of dealers, including specialised precious metal buyers, before accepting a price.

Finally, it should be noted that some white-metal jewellery marketed as 'platinum look' or similar terms contains no platinum or palladium at all, and is instead made from alternative alloys such as stainless steel or titanium with a surface treatment. Such items have no precious metal value and should not be confused with genuine, stamped platinum or palladium items, regardless of their visual similarity.