Editing Precious metal (section)

==Aluminium== 
[[Aluminium]] is now commonplace but was considered to be a precious metal until the late 1800s. Although aluminium is the [[Abundance of elements in Earth's crust|third most abundant element]] and the [[Abundance of the chemical elements|most abundant metal]] in the Earth's crust, it was at first found to be exceedingly difficult to extract the metal from its various non-metallic [[ore]]s. The great expense of refining the metal made the small available quantity of pure aluminium more valuable than gold.<ref name="Geller" /> Bars of aluminium were exhibited at the [[Exposition Universelle (1855)|Exposition Universelle of 1855]],<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Karmarsch |first=C. |year=1864 |title=Fernerer Beitrag zur Geschichte des Aluminiums |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v4MtAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA49 |journal=Polytechnisches Journal |volume=171 |issue=1 |pages=49 |access-date=2021-11-03 |archive-date=2023-08-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230822095942/https://books.google.com/books?id=v4MtAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA49 |url-status=live }}</ref> and [[Napoleon III of France|Napoleon III]]'s most important guests were given aluminium cutlery, while those less worthy dined with mere silver.<ref name="Geller">{{Cite journal |last=Geller |first=Tom |date=2007 |title=Aluminum: Common Metal, Uncommon Past |url=https://www.sciencehistory.org/distillations/magazine/aluminum-common-metal-uncommon-past |journal=Chemical Heritage Magazine |volume=27 |issue=4 |access-date=22 March 2018 |archive-date=26 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190426071633/https://www.sciencehistory.org/distillations/magazine/aluminum-common-metal-uncommon-past |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1884, the pyramidal capstone of the [[Washington Monument]] was cast of 100 ounces of pure aluminium. By that time, aluminium was as expensive as silver.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=George J. Binczewski |year=1995 |title=The Point of a Monument: A History of the Aluminum Cap of the Washington Monument |url=http://www.tms.org/pubs/journals/JOM/9511/Binczewski-9511.html |journal=JOM |volume=47 |issue=11 |pages=20–25 |doi=10.1007/bf03221302 |bibcode=1995JOM....47k..20B |s2cid=111724924 |access-date=2008-09-16 |archive-date=2016-01-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160124070602/http://www.tms.org/pubs/journals/JOM/9511/Binczewski-9511.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The statue of [[Anteros]] atop the [[Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain]] (1885&ndash;1893) in London's [[Piccadilly Circus]] is also of cast aluminium. Over time, however, the price of the metal has dropped. The dawn of commercial electric generation in 1882 and the invention of the [[Hall–Héroult process]] in 1886 caused the price of aluminium to drop substantially over a short period of time.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.acs.org/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/aluminumprocess.html |title=Production of Aluminum: The Hall-Héroult Process |website=American Chemical Society |access-date=Nov 1, 2024}}</ref>