What is more valuable per gram than gold?
Gold has survived the test of time as a protector of wealth, but that doesn't mean other items are currently more valuable than it. Some of these items can be obtained; others will likely kill you if you possess them. Here's a simple list with their respective prices per gram. These figures were correct at the time of writing in 2022.
Palladium - £23.55 per gram
A 'yo-yo' platinum group metal has recently been cheaper than gold, but its price has shot up over the last four years due to industrial demand and geopolitics.
Rhodium - £682 per gram (March 2021)
The rare platinum group metal saw a meteoric rise in value in 2021, becoming the most valuable metal commodity ever sold.
Da Hong Pao Tea - £1,000 per gram
Also transliterated as Ta Hung Pao tea, the original leaves from the six mother trees on Wuyishan Mountain, Fukien Province, are officially protected by the Chinese government as a state treasure.
Meteorites - £800 per gram
Rare meteorites can fetch up to £815 per gram, but dependent on the material found in it.
Coral Snake Venom - £3,250 per gram
Allegedly has health benefits. Researchers are studying it to see if it has antibacterial and antiviral properties.
Plutonium - >£3,600 per gram
Valuable radioactive metal, but consider watching the Sky TV series “Chernobyl” before acquiring some. Not put off? You can supposedly buy some here. Good luck trying to import it legally into the UK.
Tritium - £24,400 per gram
A rare radioactive isotope of hydrogen, it is used in self-powered lighting (it glows green in the dark) and thermonuclear bombs.
Red Beryl - £40,800 per gram
A rare gemstone, Bixbite is only found in the United States. The Utah Geological Survey estimates its rarity to be 1,000 times less than gold.
Red Diamonds - >£4 million per gram
Not to be confused with blood diamonds. Rarest diamond type is mostly found in Kimberly, Western Australia.
Antimatter - ~£2,000 trillion per gram
A few nanograms have only ever been produced by humans and is effectively priceless. Would destroy everything around it - one gram has the same power as a nuclear bomb. Gives new meaning to the term 'volatile asset'!
What was more valuable than gold?
We mentioned earlier that gold has survived the test of time as a protector of wealth. Here's another list of items which used to be more valuable than gold, with some of them spectacularly losing their value once the bubble burst…
Saffron (2010s)
In the early 2010s, saffron was briefly more expensive per gram than gold. Although certain classes of saffron will still sell with a higher price tag, most consumers can source high-quality saffron at around £7 a gram. However, this is not a simple story, as the market is awash with counterfeit and adulterated saffron.
More reading: Saffron.
Platinum (2000s)
Consistently more expensive than gold during the early 21st-century commodity boom but has been cheaper than gold since late 2014.
Dutch tulips (1630s)
Tulip Mania is perhaps the most famous bubble. Certain flower bulbs will sell for more than their weight in gold, but not typical Dutch tulips.
Cryptocurrency (2021-current)
Including cryptocurrency here might be slightly unfair as it can't technically be weighed. Still, the main cryptocurrencies, such as Ethereum and Bitcoin, are currently caught in a vicious bear market.
Mississippi Company / South Sea Company (1720s)
These classic speculative bubbles sparked a frenzy in the share prices for both companies. At their peak, the paper shares for each company were worth 10,000 livres and 1,000 pounds, respectively, before crashing.
Collectable Comic Books (1985-93)
Not as well known as other bubbles, speculative hysteria took over the comic book industry in the late 1980s. Some collectable comics sold for over a million US dollars—approximately £10,000 per gram at 1990 exchange rates. The resulting crash nearly brought the whole industry down with it.
Royal Mint Great Engravers Coin Series?!
We joke, but certain collectable coins can fluctuate in value wildly, as perfectly illustrated in The Royal Mint's Great Engravers Coin Series. The resale market may have calmed down slightly for some of the later releases, such as the Gothic Portrait and Gothic Crown, but we have seen prices for the silver Una and the Lion coins in excess of £88 per gram as of December 2022.
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