Boron, mysterious boron, is an element that hides under plain sight and is far rarer than one might suspect given the ubiquity of its compounds: borax, boric acid and borosilicate glass being three well known applications. The important thing to know right up front is that even though the element is common enough the pure element isn’t at all. This is because isolating boron from the chemical bonds it creates is an arduous task involving costly, time-consuming steps made all the costlier by the fact that in the end it’s pretty useless in this uncombined state.

Partly to blame: pure boron is exceptiionally hard and brittle much like its cousin carbon. Unlike carbon however crystalline boron does not make for mouth watering gems so very few go through all that bother. If it were merely brittle like glass that wouldn’t be so bad. Adding to thiis material’s list of difficulties we find that it has a very high meltinig point so it can’t be melted (like glass) into a mold by which we could obtain a desired shape. One must first make a big lump of it, chemically or via specialized furnaces, and then carve from that the form that is sought. But boron throws one last curveball in that it is so hard that even doing this otherwise straightforward goal requires a diamond saw!

Luciiteria is happy to add boron as its newest option in the bullion ounce series. We do regret that the steep cost will keep this out of the hands of most collectors.