Osmium - Smithson Tennant, an English chemist, discovered osmium in 1803 from the residues of platinum ores that were dissolved in nitro-hydrochloric acid. Osmium's characteristic of having a bad smell led to its naming as such, which was derived from the Greek word "osme", meaning "smell". mol-1 Atomic: Oxidation States: -1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Electronegativity: 2.54 (Pauling scale) Atomic Radius: 144 picometre Covalent Radius: 136 6 picometre Van der Waals Radius: 166 picometre Ionization Energies: 890.1 kJ.mol-1 (first), 1980 kJ.mol-1 (second) The term "gold" was derived from "geolu", an Old English Anglo-Saxon word which means "yellow". Platinum - This element, after which this group of precious metals is named, is represented by the symbol Pt. Its atomic number is 78. Platinum is dense, ductile, and malleable; it is gray-white in color. Known to be highly resistant to corrosion, this precious metal is used in jewelry, electrical contacts, and laboratory equipment. removing hydrogen sulfide from various industrial processes; 6. electrolytic cells for various chemical processes (as a component of mixed-metal oxide anodes); 7. optical sensor device; 8. radiotherapy (particularly of eye tumors). Along with the five other precious metals in the platinum group, ruthenium is generally found in ores in North America, South America, and the Ural Mountains in Russia. Two examples are given here: One is the 100,000-euro Vienna Philharmonic, minted in 2004, which contains 31 kilograms of gold; the other is the 1 million-dollar Canadian Maple Leaf, minted in 2007, which contains 100 kilograms of gold. Three factors - metal, purity, and weight - affect the value of bullion. Qualifying this further, only two of these three traditional coinage metals are considered precious metals. These are gold and silver. Gold and silver are rare and have high economic values. These things can't be said of copper, the other traditional coinage metal. Occurring in nature in metallic form, these two precious metals can be produced sans the use of extraction metallurgy.