Platinum has long since been a prized possession across the globe. An artifact made of worked platinum was found in an Egyptian casket from the 7th century BCE and early inhabitants of Ecuador and Colombia also valued this silvery-white metal, using it in ornaments and as cladding on other precious objects.
Because platinum’s melting point is so high (around 1770°C, compared to gold at 1065°C), ancient people had to get creative to work it. Many ancient artifacts were made from large platinum nuggets or tiny grains that were bound together with a more malleable metal, such as gold.
In the 1500s, Spanish explorers encountered platinum while searching for gold in South America. They found a strange, shiny metal mixed with the gold, which they called “platina,” meaning "little silver." Because it was so hard to melt, they didn’t think it was valuable.
In 1735, Spanish explorer Antonio de Ulloa definitively described the metal, publishing the results 13 years later. In the meantime, British metallurgist Charles Wood sent samples of the metal to William Brownrigg for investigation in 1741. Brownrigg was the first person to recognize platinum as a new element. Soon after, chemists across Europe began characterizing the properties of platinum.