Palladium in Jewelry: A Practical Guide

Palladium is a naturally white platinum group metal that jewelers usually work as a 95 percent alloy, marked 950. It weighs a little over half as much as platinum for the same piece and does not need rhodium plating to stay white, but its price, including its price relative to platinum, has swung hard because most of it is mined in Russia and South Africa and most of it ends up in car exhaust catalysts. At the bench it behaves much like platinum, with one important difference: molten palladium absorbs hydrogen and oxygen, so casting and torch welding call for extra care.

What palladium is

The Royal Society of Chemistry describes palladium as a shiny, silvery-white metal that resists corrosion, with a melting point of 1,554.8°C and a density of 12.0 g/cm³. William Hyde Wollaston isolated it in 1802; the name comes from the asteroid Pallas. Its most unusual property is that it can absorb more than 900 times its own volume of hydrogen, which explains most of the bench precautions below.

Most bench figures here come from the Palladium Technical Manual published by Johnson Matthey and the Goldsmiths’ Company Assay Office London.

Property	950 palladium	Pure platinum	Typical 14K or 9K white gold
Density (g/cm³)	11.8	21.5	About 12.7
Melting	About 1,350–1,380°C (casting alloys)	1,768.2°C	Varies by alloy
Natural color	White, no plating needed	White	Often rhodium plated
As-cast hardness	110–135 HV for alloys fit for purpose	Depends on alloy	Varies; nickel whites are harder than Pd950

Platinum figures are from the RSC; the rest are from the manual. For platinum’s own alloys and marks, see our guide to platinum in jewelry.

The common alloys

The manual lists three main 95 percent alloys:

• Pd950/ruthenium for seamless wedding bands, tubing and other wrought products. Annealed, it measures 115–125 HV; extrusion and machining can raise that to 180–190 HV, which it keeps unless annealed or soldered.
• Pd950/ruthenium/gallium for casting, chosen for hardness and wear resistance.
• Pd950/copper, used by Italian makers for chain.

Other alloys use silver, copper, cobalt or indium. Surface blasting can make one alloy test anywhere from 120 to 180 HV, so the manual prefers core hardness readings.

Fineness and marks

United States

The FTC Jewelry Guides (16 CFR 23.6) treat palladium as one of the six platinum group metals. In plain English, using the word “palladium” or an abbreviation in a way that misrepresents a piece’s true composition is deceptive, and the accepted quality-mark abbreviations are “Pd.” and “Pall.” The section’s numeric thresholds (950, 900 and 850 parts per thousand) are written for platinum, so the clearest practice is to state the fineness, for example “950 Pd.” Palladium is not platinum and should never be sold as “platinum.” This is a summary, not legal advice.

United Kingdom

The Hallmarking Act 1973 (Application to Palladium) Order 2009, made in July 2009, added palladium to the UK’s hallmarked precious metals. It set three standards, 500, 950 and 999, and exempted palladium articles made before 1 January 2010. The Birmingham Assay Office confirms that hallmarking is a legal requirement for palladium items weighing 1 gram or more, and describes 950 as the most common fineness. The hallmark shows a sponsor’s mark, the fineness inside three adjoining circles and an assay office mark; the head of Pallas Athene is an optional traditional symbol. The manual notes that solder used on 500 and 950 work must contain at least 700 parts per thousand precious metal.

Supply and price

Where it comes from

The USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026 estimates world palladium mine production at 190,000 kg in 2025:

Country	Palladium mined, 2025 estimate (kg)
Russia	84,000
South Africa	70,000
Canada	16,000
Zimbabwe	15,000
United States	6,200

Jewelry is a sliver of demand: Johnson Matthey’s May 2022 PGM Market Report put 2021 palladium jewelry demand at 91,000 ounces, against 8.34 million ounces for autocatalysts and about 10.1 million ounces in total.

The 2000 squeeze

The squeeze of 2000 was tied to Russian supply. The USGS precious metals survey for February 2001 shows Engelhard’s palladium price running from a low of $437 an ounce on January 6, 2000, to a high of $985 on December 27, for a 2000 average of $691.84, above platinum’s $549.31. In January 2001 it reached $1,100, with speculators betting on prolonged delays in Russian exports. News of impending Russian exports and stockpile sales by the US Defense Logistics Agency then knocked the London PM fix down $129 in one week, to $851 on February 23, 2001.

Prices later fell a long way. When Mark B. Mann wrote about 950 palladium for Ganoksin in 2005, he quoted palladium at $182 an ounce against $892 for platinum. That gap is what made 950 palladium attractive as a lighter, lower-cost white metal.

2019 to 2022

USGS annual average prices (Engelhard unfabricated metal) climbed from $1,544.31 in 2019 to $2,205.27 in 2020 and $2,419.18 in 2021, before easing to $2,133.81 in 2022 (MCS 2024). Johnson Matthey reported that palladium spiked above $2,600 when Russian troops entered Ukraine on February 24, 2022, and peaked at a record $3,339 on March 7, 2022. It noted that about 28 percent of combined primary and secondary palladium supply in 2021 came from Russia. The USGS puts the average at $1,351.66 for 2023, $994.90 for 2024 and an estimated $1,100 for 2025, when platinum averaged an estimated $1,200. Palladium’s price advantage over platinum has disappeared and returned more than once.

Palladium in white gold

Stewart Grice, writing for Ganoksin in 2003, explains that nickel-free white golds were developed in the 1920s with palladium as the main bleaching agent. Low-palladium 14K alloys contain up to 10 percent palladium and usually benefit from rhodium plating; high-palladium 18K alloys are the closest white golds to platinum in color and usually do not need it. Grice rates palladium whites as mechanically superior in many respects to nickel whites, with better resistance to corrosion and tarnish and none of nickel white gold’s fire-cracking problems. The main drawback is cost. Grice also points to nickel allergy, and European Union rules on nickel in jewelry, as reasons the trade turns to palladium whites.

At the bench

Casting

The manual’s general parameters for 950 casting alloys are a melting range of 1,350–1,380°C, a casting range of 1,548–1,600°C and flasks at 675–730°C, using:

1. Induction melting, ideally in a sealed chamber that is vacuumed and backfilled with argon.
2. Phosphate-bonded investment, as for platinum, mixed fresh.
3. Carbon-free ceramic crucibles, not graphite.
4. Short, heavy sprues on the thickest section, with a large button to solidify last.
5. No more than 50 percent clean recycled metal.

Model walls should be at least 1.0 mm thick, and rings are made a quarter size large to allow for shrinkage. Torch casting in open air is not recommended: absorbed hydrogen makes castings brittle and liable to crack. For defects common to all metals, see casting porosity.

Annealing and forming

Anneal on a high-heat block with a natural gas or propane and oxygen torch, bringing the metal to bright orange (890–1,098°C) and holding it for 15 to 30 seconds before quenching or air cooling. Palladium work-hardens at about the same rate as high-karat yellow gold. Clean off traces of steel from tools before annealing, and note that ordinary pickle does nothing to remove palladium’s oxide.

Soldering, sizing and repair

• Solders. The manual gives flow points of about 1,295°C (hard), 1,210°C (medium) and 1,095°C (easy) for palladium solders. Lower-temperature platinum solders (1,000 to 1,300) also work, but leave a slightly darker seam.
• No ordinary flux or firecoat. Joints must fit flush; palladium solder will not fill gaps.
• Oxide. High heat leaves a blue-violet surface oxide. A neutral flame removes it in seconds; a ceramic-based firestain spray protects finished, stone-set work.
• Sizing. Use a butt joint with hard palladium solder or 1300 platinum solder. Torch welding risks porosity; laser welding is suited to filling casting porosity, minor assembly and sizing.

Setting and finishing

Palladium has little memory, so claws stay where they are pushed. It is softer than nickel white gold, so designs need slightly heavier claws and shanks, and setters typically remove 35 to 45 percent of a claw’s thickness when cutting a bearing, against 45 to 55 percent in gold. For polishing, the manual recommends platinum Tripoli followed by Hyfin, finishing with 8,000-grit white rouge. Keep palladium filings and scrap separate from other metals for refining.

Safety

The light from palladium at soldering and casting temperatures can damage the retina. Wear a No. 5 welding lens at minimum for soldering, a No. 7 for long sessions and a No. 10 for casting. Use tungsten carbide tweezers and solder picks to avoid contamination. The manual’s identification tests use iodine and concentrated nitric acid (palladium turns iodine black and nitric acid orange-brown), so handle acids with gloves, eye protection and ventilation.

Common questions

Does a palladium ring need rhodium plating? No. Palladium is white throughout, and surface wear is restored by cleaning and repolishing.

How can a jeweler tell palladium from platinum? Weight first: palladium is about half as dense. The manual’s iodine test, on a spot cleared of any plating, is a second check.