Sadly, it’s getting to the point where only collectors who wear monocles and have time shares in Dubai can afford samples of this metal. Just a few years ago it was a fraction the cost of gold or platinum. Then Covid came and the price soared to an absurd $30,000+ per ounce. All expectations were that this was an aberration caused by the exigencies of the pandemic. But with normalcy restored rhodium has stubbornly refused to pull back to its historical trading range. It does not seem likely to ever again sell below the $10,000/oz mark, and perhaps the likelier to edge back above $20,000.

Rhodium is a colorless, bright shade of gray visually indistinguishable from platinum but nearly half its density. Being extremely brittle and nearly impossible to cast means that even if it wasn’t horribly expensive there’d be little hope to see it turned into interesting shapes. In this offering we find a gram’s worth of shattered fragments of very, very pure rhodium locked in a hermetically sealed glass ampule. With it, I don’t know, you can take it to the country club and lord over the plebes who must make do with their humble gold and platinum holdings.