Platinum
Legacy coinage metal of the Velasian era; platinum coin is valid but extremely rare, and human societies cannot melt it, though some dwarven holds can, with effort.
Qualities
Platinum is dense, as gold is; osmium and iridium are dense in the same way, but have not been isolated. With gold, it is one of only two metals that accrue as dwarven Wealth.
Among the dwarves
Dwarves are the miners of platinum, and accept it as everyday coinage. Once inside the dwarven system, it tends strongly, though not by policy, to leave circulation and become ingots, since many believe the right place for platinum coin is in an ingot. All holds would like to, but not all can smelt platinum or even work it into ingot form, so in some places ingots are hammered, not cast, largely under primitive mechanical hammer-mills of hardcast. Some individuals see the utility in not converting it in the short term. Little platinum therefore sees the light of day in contemporary trade.
Dwarves prize density for its symbolic weight; opinion splits. Traditionalists hold that gold was good enough for their forefathers, and that platinum, whatever its qualities, is not the same as real, reliable gold. Modernists grant that it is dense, does not tarnish, and would sit in a hoard for a thousand years. They hold that a hoard of gold and platinum together carries no disgrace, and find platinum as pretty as gold.