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	GBP	USD	EUR
Gold Price	£3,118.90	$4,172.19	€3,611.53
Silver Price	£47.82	$63.93	€55.33

Platinum vs Gold

1oz PAMP Platinum Bar Having fascinated mankind for thousands of years, many would argue that gold is the definitive precious metal. However, while such a statement would not necessarily be false, gold bars and coins are not the only option you should consider for your investment portfolio.

All precious metals share certain qualities. By nature, they are excellent stores of wealth, famous shields against inflation or economic crisis, and are all wise choices as long term investments. However, none of these metals are quite the same, and should therefore be treated accordingly.

Platinum is an excellent example of this. As two valuable and beautiful precious metals, it is easy to consider gold and platinum to be direct alternatives, with little more than colour differentiating them from each other. As far as their use in jewellery is concerned, this may well be the case. As investment metals, however, each of these metals has its own set of unique characteristics that may sway you towards investing in one or the other, or perhaps even both. Below we look further into the differences between platinum vs gold.

Is platinum better than gold?

Both platinum and gold are rare, noble metals. They each have various uses in electronics and other industries, both are used in jewellery, and as stores of wealth. When it comes to investments platinum is not necessarily better than gold, though neither is it worse. Each has a price that moves independently to the other, depending on the economic conditions at the time. As such, sometimes platinum will perform better than gold, and other times gold will make more gains.

Below are some of the main differences to consider if you're weighing up a platinum investment vs a gold investment.

Platinum	Gold
More scarce - there is an estimated 15-20 times less platinum on the planet than gold.	VAT-free - your initial outlay will be more truly reflected in the amount of metal you own.
Higher industrial demand - catalytic converters & LCD screens	Buying British legal tender such as gold Britannias and Sovereigns offers you a CGT-exempt investment .
Platinum: gold ratio indicates that it is currently undervalued - platinum is currently cheaper than gold even after VAT. Historically, this has very rarely been the case.	Has outperformed platinum in recent years and has remained closer to the heights it hit in 2011 than platinum has managed.
Platinum’s greater volatility means it is a potentially bigger opportunity for the speculative investor should the white metal experience any upward swings.	The ideal safe-haven - of all the metals, gold has proven itself throughout history to be the most stable, inflation defying store of wealth.

1oz PAMP Gold Bar Although not usually the case, platinum is currently cheaper than gold and therefore has the obvious advantage of being more affordable, even after the VAT on platinum has been added. For those looking to obtain as much metal as possible, then, this may be considered a significant advantage. Furthermore, the fact that platinum is so much scarcer than either gold or silver - there is supposedly 15-20 times more gold on earth than platinum - yet is used in so many more industries, implies that the white metal is currently undervalued.

Platinum is as much an industrial metal as it is a precious metal, with an enormous importance to the motor industry in particular. As such its value has the potential to increase significantly in the future as discoveries about this extremely useful metal continue to be made.

Of course, the safest way to invest is always in a diverse portfolio, avoiding the proverbial storage of one’s eggs in one basket, with several different assets to cover all eventualities.

Although they share some of the same qualities - they are both incredibly rare, useful, and valuable metals - they
both possess sufficient unique features to be considered two very different investments. While platinum’s value is
largely tied to its plethora of important industrial applications, gold is a relatively stable investment whose value tends
to increase in times of extreme economic difficulty.

Platinum’s volatility means that it may be less appealing to an investor looking for a particularly low risk investment, but it also provides an interesting opportunity for the more speculative investor looking to benefit from any upward swing in the platinum price.