There are different categories of precious metals. In general, gold, silver and the metals from the platinum group belong to the noble metals in the classical sense. The following metals are considered precious metals:
- Ruthenium
- Rhodium
- Palladium
- Silber
- Osmium
- Iridium
- Platinum
- Gold
You don’t list all corrosion-resistant metals as precious metals. Although titanium, niobium and tantalum are very resistant to corrosion, they are not noble metals.
Physical definition of precious metals
In chemistry, they view the definition of the noble metals as rather liberally. In physics, they view the definition of noble metals more strictly. A noble metal is a metal with electronic d-bands filled. According to these guidelines, you can only consider gold, silver and copper as precious metals.
