Originally posted by LatteLiberal
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Osmium has plummeted in price - 20 years ago pure Osmium was literally in the 100,000s of dollars per ounce, because it is fiendishly difficult (or used to be?) to separate it from Iridium as the two have very similar physical properties.
Maybe my osmium paper weight is a step closer to affordability, although it would need casing inside some inert metal such as gold because it (or the powdered form certainly) spontaneously oxidizes in air, producing a highly toxic gas Osmium Tetroxide. Also, only about 100 Kg is produced worldwide annually.
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