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Platinum - Platinum is a precious metal that costs more than gold. It
usually is mixed with other similar metals, known as the platinum group metals:
iridium, palladium, ruthenium, rhodium and osmium.
 Different markings are used on platinum jewelry as compared with gold jewelry,
based on the amount of pure platinum in the piece. The quality markings for
platinum are based on parts per thousand. For example, the marking 900 Platinum
means that 900 parts out of 1000 are pure platinum, or in other words, the item
is 90% platinum and 10% other metals. The abbreviations for platinum - Plat. or
Pt. - also can be used in marking jewelry.
Items that contain at least 950 parts per thousand pure platinum can be marked
simply platinum. Items that have at least 850 parts per thousand pure platinum
can be marked with the amount of pure platinum and the word platinum or an
abbreviation (for example, 950 platinum, 900 Plat. or 850 Pt.). Jewelry that
contains less than 850 parts per thousand pure platinum, but has a total of 950
parts per thousand of platinum group metals (of which at least 500 parts is pure
platinum), may be marked with both the amount of pure platinum and the amount of
the other platinum group metals in the piece. For example, the marking 600 Plat.
350 Irid. means that the item has 600 parts per thousand (60%) platinum, and 350
parts per thousand (35%) iridium, totaling 950 parts per thousand of platinum
group metals, and 50 parts per thousand (5%) other metals.
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