Proof platinum discount

Yes, I am trying to be funny with my headline. I do know that one-ounce proof platinum American Eagles are very expensive.

However, if you look at them from the perspective of the spring of 2008, current prices seem much more reasonable. Platinum over $2,400 sounds more like a forecast than something that was a fact not all that long ago.

We can thank the economic crisis and the drastic decline in car sales this year as contributing to the current lower price of platinum.

This points up a dichotomy. Sometimes we think about platinum as a precious metal. Sometimes we think about it as an industrial metal used in catalytic converters.

Collectors, of course, are just looking at the potential scarcity and the possibility of riding the current wave of buying anything than seems to be a good bet to appeal to the investment crowd.

Pity the poor Mint trying to figure out how we all think.