In our studies of your planet, we have taken an interest in how you attribute value to certain chemical elements but not others. Your planet, unlike ours, contains a molten iron core. The iron swirls, creating your magnetosphere, shielding the planet from dangerous radiation. During the planet's formation, certain transition metals bonded with the iron that sunk to the core, leaving very little in the eventual crust. Volcanic eruptions, plate tectonics, and asteroid collisions replenish these rare metals to the crust in small quantities.
Some of these rare metals are known to your people as the platinum group, the densest metals in existence. Metals like gold and silver became coinage and adornments in your early civilization. People even tried, unsuccessfuy, to turn non-precious metals into these before nuclear physics was known. Later, discoveries came of platinum, osmium, iridium, rhodium, and palladium. Their extreme rarities overshadowed the regal gold, especially when technology found use for them.
Though much of gold's use remains for jewelry and bullion, supply-and-demand has continued to drive prices for the others. Silver has medicinal value and is the best conductor of electricity. The platinum group hold their strength and act as chemical catalysts.
10ozt Silver Bar
Next in this series, I will assist you Earthlings in learning to spot hallmarks of these precious metals.
accepted, reason: Of course, seeing as it's written by you Hull, it's superbly written. No need to check punctuation, caps, the form it's written in, lol. But, it's an great topic in general.
By @HullBreach
This is Draxis for a moment of enlightenment.
Astra Moon
