Those cool neodymium magnets you’ve no doubt played with at some point do not, unfortunately, make the best representation of this element in a collection. These magnets are an alloy consisting of mostly iron with only about a quarter of the mass being actual Nd. The truth is that even without the consideration of cost, this rare earth metal can’t survive for long in open air without being heavily alloyed as oxygen readily attacks it.

China sells over ten billion dollars worth of neodymium every year and most of it does go into the production of magnets. The ones that go on your fridge, the ones in an electrical car and the ones that generate electricity in wind farms. Among the tiny number of other uses for this metal you can count scientific collectibles such as this highly purified specimen here that sits and does nothing much besides look pretty :-)