My name is Platinum. My name comes from the Spanish word “platina”, which translates into “little silver”. I am a transition metal, and I am found in ground 10, period 6 in the periodic table. I am also part of the platinum-group metals, or PGMs, along with ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, osmium, and iridium.
While I was found in ancient artifacts such as the Casket of Thebes, and was used skillfully in pre-Columbian South America, the first written account of me was written by Julius C. Scaliger, an Italian scholar, in 1557. He described me as a strange metal located in mines between Panama and Mexico, and wrote that “no fire or any of the Spanish arts could melt it”. In the 16th century, I had little value; many gold miners and Spanish conquistadors
While I was found in ancient artifacts such as the Casket of Thebes, and was used skillfully in pre-Columbian South America, the first written account of me was written by Julius C. Scaliger, an Italian scholar, in 1557. He described me as a strange metal located in mines between Panama and Mexico, and wrote that “no fire or any of the Spanish arts could melt it”. In the 16th century, I had little value; many gold miners and Spanish conquistadors