A Metal Rarer Than Gold or Silver: A History of Palladium
In the field of numismatics, gold and silver have long been the king and queen of metals used to strike coins. There isn’t a collector alive that isn’t familiar with the coins struck from these two metals, and their beloved hues have been the object of desire in almost every culture around the world. Recently however, other precious metals have become more and more popular as science continues to advance and new materials are discovered and utilized. Among them is palladium, which has seen a meteoric rise, spurring interest in the metal for use in the numismatic market as well.
Discovered in 1803 by the English chemist William Hyde Wollaston, palladium is a rare and silvery-white lustrous metal that is chemically and physically similar to platinum but is much rarer. Historically, the most common use for palladium has been in automobile catalytic converters, where it converts a car’s exhaust fumes into less-toxic pollutants. However, palladium is also seen in jewelry, dentistry, surgical instruments, electronics, and more. Palladium’s versatile chemical properties allow it to be used in a wide range of pursuits, making it exponentially more valuable than other precious metals.
Compounding this demand is the difficulty of acquiring palladium, as it is both rarer than platinum and is typically only found in remote parts of the world like Siberia or deep in the jungles of Brazil. Over the course of forty years, palladium’s value has skyrocketed from a low of $53.65 per ounce in 1980 to $1,875 per ounce in 2021 at the time of this writing.
To satisfy this demand, the United States Mint began striking the American Palladium Eagle. the official palladium bullion coin of the U.S. Struck from 99.95% pure palladium and features the revitalized design of the Mercury Dime created by Adolph A. Weinman in 1916.
After its first issue in 2017, the Palladium Eagle proved popular enough to warrant a proof issue in 2018, followed by a reverse proof issue in 2019. Each of these issues were struck in extremely limited numbers, with the 2019-W the largest at a mere 30,000 examples struck. This means that the largest issue of the Palladium Eagle is the same as the smallest issue of the American Silver Eagle! Between the small mintages and the unique luster of the precious metal, the Palladium Eagle has proven to be incredibly popular among collectors.
