Most Active Stories On Air Staff and WPM Interns Thu January 10,
2013 What Does $1 Trillion Worth Of Platinum Look Like? OK, OK.
We know that you don't actually need $1 trillion worth of
platinum to make this debt-defying coin. But just for the sake
of some financial fun, how much platinum would you actually need
to mint a coin that contains a trillion dollars worth of
platinum? Turns out, it's probably more than mankind has
available on the market right now. Before we do the math, we
need to be sure we're on the same page about what a trillion is.
In many countries, a trillion is one million million million, or
1,000,000,000,000,000,000. But here in the U.S., it's just a
million million, or 1,000,000,000,000. So let's go with that. If
you log on to your favorite precious metal website, you can pick
up some platinum coins today for about $1,620 an ounce. (Though
you'd probably get a bulk discount — you've got a hefty order).
To make a coin that contains $1 trillion worth of platinum,
you'd need about 617 mill