Mr. Wolf, everyone is talking about crystalline osmium, you can see it at many trade fairs and it is available in more than 30 countries around the world. If someone decides to invest in osmium today, what does he need to know about osmium?
Wolf: First of all, that the reserves are limited to just one cubic meter. According to current assessments, no more osmium will be mined. At the same time you can get good information on some websites. These are, for example www.osmium.com
or the press review www.osmium-world-council.com. But of course you can also simply call the hotline of the osmium institutes and ask questions if you have any questions. This number is: +49 (89) 7 44 88 88 88. Incidentally, the six eights in the number stand for the “eternal metal”, as some people call it.
But there is not only crystalline osmium, but also other forms, right?
Yes, there is the very cheap and at the same time very toxic raw osmium. This form should simply never be acquired by private individuals. When exposed to air, it immediately forms the poisonous osmium tetroxide, which, for example, is used in medicine in milligram doses against arthrosis. Applications range from microelectronics to organochemistry, but the market is actually tiny. We are talking about a few grams per year and institution using these applications. Then there are also fused beads, cubes and sintered bars. These forms are also not classified as harmless. A few days ago a new reference book was published, which provided clarity. In the English original it says: “harmful to health, it must be handled in crystalline form”, i.e. translated: osmium (it) must not be handled in any other way than in crystalline form.
The advertising measures of the advocates of sintered bars are very exciting. Because self-proclaimed experts like Bodo Albrecht, originally from the platinum metal business, who have dedicated themselves to the new bars, are propagating this form of tangible assets and videos at the same time, in which you can see that even the presenters only work with rubber gloves for self-protection.
© Osmium-Institut
We consider this to be a double-edged sword in the argument. In addition, these bars are 2.5 times more expensive than raw osmium without any significant processing effort. In order to be reprocessed, these ingots must be broken, burned and cleaned again in order to be used again as raw osmium. This means that they have a lower value than raw osmium. They also come from China and the origin of the raw materials does not follow the rules of ESG-M. It can also be assumed that Russian resources are being used. It gives the wrong impression that osmium is traded as an ingot, unfortunately this is not correct.
Mr. Wolf, are there also differences with crystalline osmium?
Yes, indeed, there are. There are crystals that grow wild and without control, these crystals can be crystallized with little or shall we say bearable effort. They are nice and pretty, but only suitable for collectors. They are absolutely harmless to health, as is decorative osmium, which is inert.
© Osmium-Institut
However, the price of crystalline osmium in its flat form cannot and must not be applied here. We are currently conducting some proceedings against people who sell osmium in this form on ebay and are trying to lower the prices of the www.osmium-preis.com to use. If you buy such crystals, you have to work with reputable suppliers, such as Alexander Wimmer in Austria. Here you don’t pay exorbitant prices and you can collect these crystals. However, resale is not possible, as is the case with flat crystallized osmium www.osmium-marketplace.com possible. But collectibles are more likely to be kept and put in the closet. Customers of such products can contact you via www.osmium-analysis.com inspect and certify.
Are such pieces also included in the worldwide osmium database?
Wolf: No, they are not, because they are not used in jewelry or luxury goods. This only happens with the flat, crystallized structures, which are repeatedly passed through a complex process in which they are repeatedly sorted out in quality controls. Even holes with a size of only one nanometer lead to an exclusion in the usability. The same applies to surfaces with so-called spikes, i.e. crystals that protrude from a perfect surface. For this reason, prices for crystalline osmium are unfortunately very high. But that’s the price to pay for quality and for usability in the big brand industry. Because it’s easy to understand: only this material is resalable. Therefore, we strongly warn against purchases from sources that are not certified by Osmium Institutes and whose employees are trained.
Mr. Wolf, you said in the preliminary talk that you can also visit them?
Wolf: Yes, you can’t just do that, maybe you should. Because you can experience certification live and ask all questions directly to the employees from quality control and the laboratory. We are currently building an open laboratory and a flagship store in Murnau am Staffelsee in the style of VW’s glass factory. The experience there will certainly be even more impressive in nine months, because for safety reasons the work is currently being carried out in a decentralized manner so as not to have and secure high stocks of osmium in one place.
You mentioned a study and a compendium on osmium?
Wolf: We are currently preparing a study on fraud with precious metals, led by three psychologists. This topic is extremely important to us, because since osmium cannot be counterfeited, we are often asked how it is with other metals that are easy to counterfeit, such as gold or silver. For this reason we have decided to carry out an international study with many surveys. The change in fraud variants is also shown, because there was already fraud around the valuable metals 200 years ago. Our goal is to find the variants used by scammers and cheats to protect osmium from such fraud. Shielding against fake news would also be important here, which is why we constantly scan the web and publish counter-statements against false reports. There’s not a lot of news here yet, but poor research or just trying to sell online newspapers through subscriptions and attention-grabbing stories is becoming more common. That’s why we want to protect property investors from these reports or at least inform them.
And this is where the Compendium comes into play. There are over 500 historical documents on osmium that we have collected with our partners over 20 years. In addition, the historical osmium chemistry is also shown in the compendium and we take a comprehensive look at modern times. The compendium will certainly be very exciting for anyone who likes osmium or already has it in the safe.
© Osmium-Institut, ISBN: 978-3-030-85889-6
And what is your recommendation regarding osmium?
Wolf: If someone has fallen in love with the metal, then one should first request information through an osmium institute. This information is free and detailed. Osmium doesn’t earn interest, but it’s getting rarer and that makes it exciting. Because it could actually run out completely in a short period of time and no goods come back from the jewelry market. The two effects are called Osmium Bigbang and Osmium Thinout.
For real investors, we clearly and exclusively recommend flat crystallized osmium with a legal entry in the osmium world database in the form of bars and discs, each of which does not include a processing surcharge for the cut. Interesting to know, in the case of resale, osmium institutes help free of charge by exchanging them for other denominations, so that you can sell just one piece of a crystalline osmium bar.
But as I said: First, get good information from an osmium institute.