Platinum, Gold and More of the Most Valuable Substances in the World
Rare and beautiful items have always had a grip on the imagination--and finances--of humankind. Since ancient times, precious minerals like gold have been revered and used in everything from jewelry and dinnerware to the sacred tombs of emperors. More recently, gold is even used to bring opulence to modern electronics such as iPhones.
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To a large degree, "value" is assigned to an object based on the long-standing economic principle of supply and demand. Typically, as demand increases and supply decreases, the price of an item rises, and vice versa.
"Rare" and "valuable" are relative terms as well. Although all items on this list are considered expensive, the price ranges of these substances vary considerably. For example, To'Ak Chocolate is a luxury chocolate brand that is the most expensive in the world, charging $300 or more for a single bar. Though the super elite will argue it is worth the cost, at $6 or more per gram, that's exorbitantly pricey for glorified cocoa beans. Then there is seagull feces which didn't quite make the list (it hasn't been assigned a per gram value yet) but is estimated to be worth nearly a half-billion dollars annually. Crazy, right?
If you're thinking of shelling out any of your hard-earned dollars for some of these expensive goods, realize that their prices can fluctuate, sometimes dramatically. Before you invest, research which of these luxury items is most likely to retain its value.
26. To'ak Chocolate
Cost: $6 per gram and up
To'ak Chocolate is the rarest and most valuable in the world. The company sources its cacao from certified Ecuadorian heirloom Nacional cacao pods, verified through DNA testing. This type of chocolate can be traced back at least 5,300 years.
25. Creme de la Mer
Cost: $6.70 per gram
Creme de la Mer bills itself as "the moisturizer that started it all." The company hand-harvests kelp off Vancouver Island as part of its trademark "Miracle Broth," which ferments for three to four months using light and sound energy to create the product.
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24. Italian White Truffles
Cost: $7.50 per gram and up
Truffles of all kinds are expensive, but the Italian white truffle takes the prize when it comes to value. In fact, "The most expensive white truffle ever sold went for $484,000 USD per lb while the largest truffle ever sold went for $66,000 per lb," according to Truffle.Farm. Although delicious to many, the simple reason truffles are so expensive is that they are rare, hard to find and labor-intensive to harvest.
23. Saffron
Cost: $25 per gram and up
Saffron is a spice used for flavoring and coloring foods, though it has also been used in textiles, perfumes and medicine for centuries. The price of this magic seasoning starts around $25 per gram, mainly because of the complex cultivation and harvesting process which involves plucking and drying "threads" from the Crocus sativus flower, a plant not found in the wild. Saffron is sourced from a variety of countries, which may affect the pricing.
22. Platinum
Cost: $28.75 per gram
Platinum is a beautiful precious metal that is in a similar category as gold and silver. All three of these metals are frequently traded in the global markets, and all three are often used for beautiful objects like jewelry. Platinum is actually 30 times rarer than gold and far more durable.
21. Iridium
Cost: $132 per gram
Iridium is a hard, silvery metal that is one of the rarest in the world. It's also extremely corrosion resistant and mainly used as a hardening agent in platinum.
20. Gold
Cost: $58.86 per gram
Gold has been valuable since, well, almost forever. This is because it is beautiful and has always been seen as a sign of wealth. Among other characteristics, gold also possesses the unusual combination of being both extremely malleable and yet nearly indestructible.
19. Palladium
Cost: $76.04 per gram
This shiny white metal is more valuable than gold. Demand has been skyrocketing recently, with the price more than doubling since early 2019. Like rhodium, palladium's major use is in catalytic converters. South Africa and Russia produce the majority of the world's palladium.
18. Rhodium
Cost: $483.11 per gram
Rhodium is a precious metal that, just like gold or silver, can have a volatile price. However, rhodium's primary use is not for jewelry but rather for catalytic converters. As global emission standards for vehicles tighten, rhodium becomes more in demand.
17. Da Hong Pao Tea
Cost: $1,400 per gram
Da Hong Pao Tea is a rare rock tea that is only produced in one place in the world, Wuyishan, Fujian. The original tree that produced the tea is no longer allowed to be harvested, but related teas are. Paying that much for Da Hong Pao may not be your cup of tea, but for others, it would be a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
16. Coral Snake Venom
Cost: $4,000 per gram
Coral snake venom is among the most lethal in the world, second only to that of the black mamba. Researchers are working on synthesizing the venom into a variety of medical purposes.
15. Plutonium
Cost: $4,400-$5,600 per gram
The devastating power of nuclear weapons, such as those used on Japan in World War II, probably makes plutonium more well-known than it otherwise might be. However, it is also used as a fuel for nuclear reactors. No matter what its use, this radioactive element is hard to come by and quite expensive.
14. Taaffeite
Cost: $10,000-18,000 per gram
Taaffeite is a light violet gemstone and considered far more rare than a diamond. The gem is named after its discoverer, Austrian geologist Richard Taaffe, who found the first stone in 1945. Taaffeite has thus far only been unearthed in Tanzania and Sri Lanka.
13. Benitoite
Cost: $7,980-$21,265 per gram and up
Benitoite is a rare gem that closely resembles a sapphire in appearance. However, it has a much higher refractive index than sapphires or even diamonds, making it sparkle incredibly bright. Benitoite is almost exclusively found in California's San Benito County, if and when it is found at all.
12. Soliris
Cost: Average $6,878 for a supply of 30 milliliters
Soliris is a highly valuable drug that most people have likely never heard of. However, it's vitally important for patients who have the extremely rare neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD).
11. Tritium
Cost: $30,000 per gram
Tritium is the sole radioactive isotope of hydrogen. It is most commonly found in the form of water. Even though it's expensive, tritium is still used in a wide range of consumer products, as it can energize light-producing phosphors in items such as watch dials, gun sights, and emergency exit signs.
10. Red Beryl
Cost: $50,000 per gram
Red beryl is an extremely rare gemstone. For every 150,000 diamonds mined, only one red beryl is found. A 2-carat red beryl is considered to be as rare a find as a 40-carat diamond, found exclusively in the United States.
9. Serendibite
Cost: $90,000 per gram
Serendibite is known as a borosilicate mineral, and it is only found in 20 locales around the world. Only two areas are said to produce "quality" serendibite, namely Mogok in northern Myanmar and Ratnapura in Sri Lanka.
8. Grandidierite
Cost: $100,000 per gram or more
Grandidierite is a gemstone that is a close cousin to serendibite, and both are extremely valuable. Grandidierite is named after its discoverer, Alfred Grandidier, who found the blue, green and white stone in Sri Lanka. At the time of the initial discovery, the grandidierite was thought to be serendibite, but it was determined to be its own new gemstone upon further examination.
7. Diamond
Cost: $58,500 or more per gram
As mentioned above, diamonds are priced at a level above their natural supply and demand levels, as they are not nearly as uncommon as many of the stones on this list. Prices can vary dramatically based on color, cut and other factors.
6. Painite
Cost: $300,000 per gram
Never heard of painite? You're not alone. As of 2001, there were only three painite crystals known to exist. More discoveries of the deep red gem have occurred since then, but rarely in sizes large enough to facet. Painite thus far has only been found in Myanmar.
5. Red Diamonds
Cost: $6 million per gram
Red diamonds are the rarest version of colored diamonds in the world, with no specimens at all being presented to the Gemological Institute of America for grading from 1957 to 1987, an impressive 30-year span. Most of the world's true red diamonds have been produced by Western Australia's Argyle mine, which shut down in 2020, perhaps making red diamonds even rarer since it closed.
4. Californium 252
Cost: $27 million per gram
Californium is a rare element that is man-made and not found in nature. As the name suggests, the element was first created in the University of California's Radiation Lab in Berkeley. Thanks to its radioactive properties, CF-252 is used in a range of applications, from scanners and reactor startup rods to Prompt Gamma Neutron Activation Analysis (PGNAA).
3. Endohedral Fullerenes
Cost: $167 million per gram
Endohedral fullerenes are complex chemical structures that are made of carbon atoms with a nitrogen atom inside. They have the ability to encapsulate other atoms within their cage-like design. They are very difficult to synthesize, which contributes to their astronomical price.
2. Agarwood
Cost: $100,000 to $800,000 per kilogram
Long hailed as "The Wood of the Gods," agarwood can be found in certain aquilaria trees after they become contaminated with Phialophora parasitica, a type of mold. The infected wood produces a distinctly aromatic resin called aloes. Not to be confused with the aloe found in skin care products, these aloes are valued primarily for their one-of-a-kind scent and used in perfumes and incenses.
1. Antimatter
Cost: $62.5 trillion per gram
Antimatter is considered to be the most expensive substance on Earth because it requires an incredible amount of energy to generate. According to CERN, it requires several hundred million pounds just to create one-billionth of a gram of antimatter. It also happens to be extremely dangerous, as it annihilates any matter that it contacts in a huge explosion, the size of which is determined by Einstein's famous E=mc² equation.
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Jake Arky and Nicole Spector contributed to the reporting for this article.
This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: Platinum, Gold and More of the Most Valuable Substances in the World
