Palladium

Polished palladium ring

Chemical symbol: Pd

Atomic number: 46

Why choose a palladium wedding band?

Palladium is the choice for you if you want a wedding ring made from a precious metal with beautiful colour and relatively hard-wearing properties, but don't want to spend as much as you would on platinum. It is a relatively rare metal, now cherished for its lustrous silvery-white finish and because it has similar properties to platinum. Palladium is resistant to corrosion and will not tarnish in air. Palladium should not show wear and tear easily, and comes after only tungsten carbide and platinum for durability - but don't forget that no metal is completely scratch-proof.

The more traditional or superstitious amongst you may be interested to know that the word 'palladium' means a guardian or a charm to protect or preserve, so palladium rings are thought to be good luck for a lasting lifetime of marital happiness. The metal was named from the tale of the goddess Athena, who was renamed Pallas after she slew a giant who tried to capture Mount Olympus and then had a sculpture built in her honour to protect the city from attack.

"palladium rings are thought to be good luck
for a lasting lifetime of marital happiness"

The history of palladium:

Palladium was discovered in the nineteenth century, and has very similar properties to platinum. It has been classified as one of the Platinum Group Metals, which also includes rhodium, iridium and ruthenium. From this group, only palladium and platinum are rare enough to be traded on the world commodities market. This is why you may see the prices quoted on Wedding Rings Direct's website change from week to week.

Palladium, like platinum, is used in many industries including car manufacturing, electronics and dentistry. Today, more than half of these metals are used for catalytic converters in cars. Interestingly, a disruption to the supply of palladium in the late 20th century lead to car manufacturers panic buying the metal to stockpile, which drove up the price enormously. The price subsequently dropped, meaning the car companies lost a vast amount of money.

The palladium hallmark

Palladium has had its own hallmark for several years, and this has been compulsory since January 2010 – thus proving that palladium truly has its place amongst the other precious metals. Like the other metal alloys we sell, palladium will be hallmarked by one of the UK Assay offices, and this hallmark will state the proportion of palladium in the alloy. Wedding Rings Direct use Palladium 950 as standard, and the rest of the alloy will usually be made up of ruthenium. See Liza's blog for more information on allergies and metal alloys. Please note that the exact composition of the palladium alloy may differ so please do give us a call if you would like to request or avoid any particular metal.

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