Pt950 means an item is 950 parts per 1,000 platinum by weight, 95% fine platinum (chemical symbol Pt, atomic number 78), with the remaining 5% made up of an alloying metal such as ruthenium, iridium, cobalt or copper. What does that remaining 5% change about how a Pt950 piece wears, and what is it worth per gram? This page covers Pt950's notation and alloys, its durability and hypoallergenic profile, its worth against the live platinum price, and how the grade compares with Pt900, Pt999 and 18K white gold under UK, US, Japanese and Chinese rules.
What Does Platinum 950 Mean?#
Platinum 950 (Pt950) denotes 95% fine platinum, alloyed with 5% of a metal such as ruthenium, iridium, cobalt or copper, and is the most common platinum jewelry fineness worldwide. Understanding platinum purity starts with a single convention: fineness is measured in parts per 1,000, not karats, and the World Platinum Investment Council's glossary states directly that the purity of platinum jewelry is invariably expressed in parts per 1,000, with Pt950 as the most common variant. That full platinum purity scale runs from 850 up to 999, and Pt950 sits near its top, one step below effectively pure platinum, because a small, deliberate alloy addition makes the metal easier to cast and set without meaningfully reducing its precious-metal content.
Pt950 Notation and What It Is Alloyed With#
Pt950 is written in several equivalent forms, all denoting the same 950-parts-per-1,000 fineness:
- Pt950
- PT950
- 950Pt
- 950Plat
- Plat 950
- plain "950"
Jewelers choose among these forms mostly by house style and country of manufacture rather than by any difference in meaning. "PT950" appears more often on European pieces and "950Plat" on some US retail tags, but both mark identical 95% platinum content.
Is 950 Platinum Good Quality?#
Platinum 950 is a durable, high-quality jewelry fineness, tough and ductile enough that prong settings deform rather than crack under stress that would snap a gold prong. At 95% pure metal, Pt950 carries more precious-metal content than every karat grade of white gold, and its remaining 5% alloy is chosen to add workability and wear resistance, not mainly to cut cost. Buyers weighing purity against durability across metals sometimes also compare platinum bars at investment-grade fineness, where the same ductile, corrosion-resistant behavior of pure platinum underlies both jewelry and bullion demand.
Platinum 950 Hardness, Durability and Patina#
Platinum 950 develops a patina, not tarnish: fine surface scratches scatter light into a satin-grey finish, and a jeweler can re-polish it without removing meaningful metal, unlike rhodium replating on white gold. Pure platinum is soft in the Mohs sense, roughly 3.5, but its Vickers hardness of 400 to 550 MPa reflects real toughness rather than brittleness, since the metal is displaced under wear instead of chipped away, so a Pt950 ring accumulates a fine scratch network rather than losing its edges or its stones. Over decades that difference compounds: a platinum piece needs only occasional polishing and loses effectively no metal at each pass, while a white gold ring's rhodium plate wears through and needs periodic replating to keep its bright white finish.
Is Platinum 950 Hypoallergenic?#
Platinum 950 is not automatically hypoallergenic: the platinum, ruthenium and iridium in a Pt950/Ru or Pt950/Ir alloy are inert, but the cobalt in a Pt950/Co alloy is a recognized contact allergen. Platinum itself carries none of the allergy risk that makes nickel white gold a problem for sensitive skin, since nickel contact allergy is among the most common contact allergies in the general population, while platinum, ruthenium and iridium are not recognized allergens in normal jewelry use. The safer recommendation for allergy-prone wearers is a Pt950/Ru or Pt950/Ir alloy, not a blanket claim that platinum is hypoallergenic, since Pt950/Co and Pt950/Cu pieces carry a real allergen risk from their alloy content.
What Is 950 Platinum Worth?#
950 platinum's worth is 95% of the live platinum spot price per gram, since Pt950 items are valued on their platinum content, not gross weight. A Pt950 ring's price starts from two numbers: how many grams the piece weighs, and what fraction of that weight is pure platinum rather than alloy. Both the platinum group metal prices today, quoted in troy ounces, grams and kilograms, and the per-gram figure below convert to the same starting point, before any retailer's fabrication, design or brand markup is added on top.
950 Platinum Price per Gram#
The value of a Pt950 item per gram is the live platinum price per gram multiplied by 0.95, before any deduction for a refiner's or buyer's assay and melt charge. At $55.01 per gram (updated 5 Oct 2026, 15:35 UTC), a Pt950 item's platinum content works out to 0.95 times that per-gram figure, multiplied by the piece's gross weight in grams, not the weight of any stones or non-platinum components it also carries. A refiner or scrap buyer typically deducts a further amount for assay and melt costs before paying out, though no dated percentage for that deduction is established here. This site's live platinum price per gram tracks that per-gram figure through the trading day.
Readers pricing this in India can start from platinum price in India today, which converts this same live figure into rupees per gram after import duty.
Common Pt950 Alloys#
Pt950 jewelry is most often alloyed with ruthenium, iridium, cobalt or copper, each chosen for a different balance of hardness, workability and castability.
| Alloy | Composition | Typical market | Characteristics |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pt950/Ru | 95% Pt, 5% ruthenium | US, Europe (bridal) | Harder than Pt950/Co, good machining and durability |
| Pt950/Ir | 95% Pt, 5% iridium | Europe, UK | Very ductile, excellent for hand-fabrication and forging |
| Pt950/Co | 95% Pt, 5% cobalt | Casting, Asia | Best castability and fine detail; slightly magnetic; can discolor under some finishing conditions |
| Pt950/Cu | 95% Pt, 5% copper | Various | Softer, more economical |
Ruthenium and iridium both function as hardeners in Western bridal work, cobalt dominates in casting-heavy production because it flows and fills fine detail better than the other three metals, and copper is the simplest and most economical, producing the softest finished alloy. These four cover the overwhelming majority of Pt950 platinum jewelry alloys sold worldwide.
Palladium also appears as an alloying metal at lower platinum fineness grades and runs on its own separate fineness system; see palladium jewelry for how 950 and 500 palladium alloys compare.
950 Platinum vs Other Grades#
950 platinum sits between Pt900 (90% platinum) and Pt999/Pt1000 (effectively pure platinum) on the millesimal fineness scale used for platinum jewelry.
Platinum 950 vs 900#
Platinum 950 contains 5 percentage points more platinum than platinum 900, by weight, a difference that shows up directly in scrap value and, to a lesser extent, in hardness and color depth. Pt900 was the historically standard US and Japanese platinum alloy, most often cut with 10% iridium, and it remains in use today for pieces that prioritize a slightly harder, more tarnish-resistant setting over the last few percentage points of precious-metal content. See 900 platinum for Pt900's full composition and where it is still specified today.
Platinum 950 vs 999 (Pt1000)#
Platinum 950 is less pure but harder-wearing than Pt999 (Pt1000), which Johnson Matthey and the World Platinum Investment Council note is used almost exclusively in Japan and China and is too soft for most Western stone-set bridal work. At 99.9% or higher platinum content, Pt999 pieces scratch and deform more readily under everyday wear, so most Western jewelers reserve that grade for wedding bands and simple designs rather than pieces that hold gemstones under daily stress. The full millesimal scale, including where Pt850 and other grades fit, is set out at platinum purity grades.
Platinum 950 vs 18K White Gold#
Platinum 950 differs from 18K white gold in composition, natural color and density: platinum is naturally white at 95% metal content and roughly 21.45 g/cm3, while 18K white gold is 75% gold, engineered white with a rhodium plate, and roughly 14.7 to 16.9 g/cm3. That density gap means an identical ring design contains substantially more mass in platinum, so a Pt950 piece is both heavier and higher in precious-metal fraction than the same design in 18K white gold, whose whiteness depends on a rhodium surface layer that eventually needs replating. Full comparison, including the honest cost breakdown between the two metals, is at platinum vs white gold.
Pt950 Legal Standards by Country#
Platinum 950 is a recognized legal fineness in the UK, Japan and China, and in the US it may be marked "Platinum" without a number under FTC rules.
| Jurisdiction | Compulsory assay | Platinum standards | Exemption weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| UK | Yes (4 Assay Offices) | 850, 900, 950, 999 | 0.5 g |
| USA | No (self-marked, FTC-policed) | 950+ plain; 850, 900, 950 numbered | n/a |
| Japan | No (voluntary, Japan Mint) | Pt1000, Pt950, Pt900, Pt850 | n/a |
| China | Standard-based (GB 11887-2012) | Pt950, Pt900, Pt850 | n/a |
United Kingdom and United States#
The UK's Hallmarking Act 1973 lists 850, 900, 950 and 999 as the permitted platinum fineness standards, with 950 the only grade recognized under the Act's original 1973 version and 850, 900 and 999 added in 1999. The US FTC's 16 CFR §23.6 lets 950-fine platinum be marked "Platinum," "Pt." or "Plat." with no number, while platinum between 850 and 950 must carry a numeric prefix such as "900Pt." A UK hallmark is applied by a third-party Assay Office, not the maker, and carries three compulsory elements:
- the sponsor's or maker's mark
- the fineness (millesimal) mark, in a metal-specific shield shape
- the assay office mark (for example, a leopard's head for London)
Full country-by-country marks and symbols are at platinum hallmarks.
Japan and China#
Japan recognizes Pt1000, Pt950, Pt900 and Pt850, with Pt950 positioned as the high end of fine jewelry, Pt900 as the volume mid-market grade and Pt850 reserved for accessible price points and chain, under a voluntary hallmark administered by the Japan Mint. China's GB 11887-2012 standard permits Pt950, Pt900 and Pt850, with Pt950 dominant in bridal and fashion jewelry; Chinese retail also uses Pt990 and Pt999 style high-purity descriptors, though their exact standing under the current standard is not established here. Neither Japan nor China operates a UK-style compulsory third-party assay: a Japanese Pt900 stamp is typically a manufacturer's own declaration unless it also carries the Japan Mint's separate certification hallmark.
950 Platinum FAQ#
Does platinum 950 tarnish?#
Platinum 950 does not tarnish or corrode; it develops a patina of fine surface scratches under wear, which is reversible by re-polishing. That patina behavior, and why platinum resists tarnish where other white metals discolor, is covered in full at does platinum tarnish.
Buyers wanting to confirm a piece's actual fineness rather than trust its stamp alone can also see how to test platinum for acid, XRF and density testing methods.
Is platinum 950 pawnable?#
Pawnbrokers and scrap buyers value a Pt950 item on its platinum weight and 95% purity, regardless of its original retail price. That is the same basis used at selling platinum jewelry for scrap: a buyer weighs the piece, confirms the stamped fineness, and pays against contained platinum rather than the brand or design behind it.
What are platinum's symbol, atomic number and CAS number?#
Platinum has the symbol Pt, atomic number 78 and CAS number 7440-06-4. It is the same element compared directly against gold on value, rarity and investment grounds at platinum vs gold, and its full elemental profile, including its physical and chemical properties, is covered at platinum (Pt), element 78.