Palladium: Not Your Everyday Precious Metal
Platinum and palladium are two precious metals that have found their way into modern coins, very often into modern bullion coins.
Collectors are all aware that gold has been a valuable commodity, a precious metal, and the stuff of valuable coins in virtually every society that used coins and in plenty of societies that did not. Silver is another precious metal that has an ancient and colorful history to it. And while the lure, luster, and desire for these two precious metals has certainly not dimmed in our modern times – as a huge number of gold and silver bullion coins testify – there are some new players in the arena, as it were. Platinum and palladium are two precious metals that have found their way into modern coins, very often into modern bullion coins. Let’s see just what sort of inroads Palladium has made.
Back to its Beginning
Perhaps a bit of background is in order first. Palladium was discovered only in 1802 by William Hyde Wollaston, a British chemist and physicist, who also discovered the rare element rhodium. It was determined to be an element at about the same time the asteroid, now known as Pallas, was discovered in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The asteroid was named after the Greek goddess Pallas Athena. So, yes, the name of this relatively new and rather rare precious metal has a sort of reflection in the larger solar system, as well as one to the ancient past.
As with several of the rarer metals on the periodic table of elements, there were not a great deal of uses for this newcomer for quite some time. But at present, the major use for palladium is in automotive catalytic converters. Indeed, an annual United States government document, the “Mineral Commodity Summaries,” which can be downloaded for free, discusses this use. Under the category called Platinum Group Metals, which includes palladium, it states that “The leading domestic use for PGMs was as catalytic converters to decrease harmful emissions from automobiles.” This remains a major reason that palladium bullion coins have and retain their high value.
U.S. Palladium Eagles
When it comes to bullion coins, the United States Mint has done a pretty amazing job of producing a wide array over the past four decades. We were not the first to jump into these waters, as the Royal Canadian Mint had started a bullion coin program back in 1979. But in 1986, the U.S. Mint came out with an impressive array of four different-sized gold bullion coins and a 1-ounce silver bullion piece as well. Considerably after this, in 1997, the Mint added four sizes of platinum bullion coins. In 2010, they unveiled the rather monstrous 5-ounce America the Beautiful “quarters.”
Despite all this, it would be a significant span of time before we got to adding palladium to this mix of precious metals. Eventually, Congress passed the “American Eagle Palladium Bullion Coin Act of 2010,” also known as Public Law 111-303. That sounds impressive and official, but it was 2017 before the Mint was able to bring any palladium bullion coins to the public. When it did, though, it hit a real home run as far as designs are concerned. Mr. Adolph A. Weinman’s classic image for the obverse of the Mercury dime – more appropriately, the Winged Liberty design – was reprised as the obverse for this big, new bullion offering. The reverse is also the design work of Mr. Weinman but is less well known since it was his creation for the 1907 American Institute of Architects gold medal. Both sides are produced in high relief, giving an end result that possesses a truly dramatic look. The nominal face value of each is $25.00, and the overall effect is that of a truly beautiful, classic-looking coin.
As with the other United States Eagles of any metal and any size, the palladium Eagles have seen mintages in what is called uncirculated or regular form and in proofs. A bit unlike the other precious metal bullion coins, specifically the silver and gold Eagles, the palladium mintages are significantly lower. In the first year of issue, there were only 15,000 pieces made, which is far lower than the production of the silver and gold bullion siblings in this growing family. We might consider that a case of just putting one toe in the water to see how large the sales would ultimately be, but mintages never really rose all that high in the following years.
In an interesting tweak on what the Mint was offering, in 2019, what is called the reverse-proof palladium Eagles made their debut. As with other reverse proof coins from the Mint, some cynics in the numismatic community cried, “Foul!” claiming that the Mint simply wanted to see how much they could soak collectors for, as far as different versions of the same coin. But to be fair, the reverse-proof palladium Eagle – with frosted fields and mirror design elements – does look very good and has a real sort of charm to it. Plus, it must have met some type of positive response, as the Mint tried it again in 2022.
Canadian Palladium
We mentioned that when it comes to the earliest bullion coins, Canada got into the game before the U.S. The same holds true for palladium coin offerings. The RCM tried a few commemoratives in palladium, as well as some palladium Maple Leaves. But despite some early successes, there has not been a constant, year-by-year issue of 1-ounce palladium bullion pieces sporting the late queen’s image.
Who Really Did It First?
In an interesting twist, the now-defunct Union of Soviet Socialist Republics actually used palladium in some of their commemorative coins several decades ago. The Soviets built an extensive commems program and kept it going for years, honoring a wide array of people and achievements. By 1989, it began to include palladium issues.
Yet the USSR was not the first in this particular area, as a few other nations have tried the metal as well. Believe it or not, Sierra Leone was the earliest. This African nation had a palladium coin issued all the way back in 1966. They are rare enough that it’s tough to find one today. Another early adopter was, again, believe it or not, Tonga. We might have to search a map of the South Pacific for a while to locate it, but this island nation put out several different sizes and types of Hau coins made from precious metal. One Hau is equal to 100 pa’anga, but none of these was ever really designed to circulate. Interestingly, Tonga appears to be the only nation to date that has issued a 2-ounce palladium bullion piece, and a relatively rare one at that. We can only wonder “Hau” we might find one to add to a collection today.
A Palladium Set
What we wish to define as a complete set of palladium coins could, it seems, be composed entirely of United States palladium Eagles, at least if we want to stick with domestic issues. They will never be considered cheap since the metal trades close to $1,000 per ounce right now, but a full-date run of them can become an impressive group. Plus, we have regular, proof, and reverse-proof issues that we can accumulate. As well we could go for the 1-ounce pieces from our northern neighbor and thus add some further good-looking coins. Taking it to the extreme, we could look up every possible palladium issue that is out there, including those rare 2-ounce Haus from little, far-distant Tonga. Whatever we opt for, though, there are now four valuable types of bullion coins available to us – even if palladium is not our everyday precious metal.
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