Palladium Ring - hallmarks / pros vs cons

[Melon]

Hey - hoping someone can help me confirm the meaning of the markings on this ring, thanks. 

1. I believe the first mark (S&C) is a makers mark, which probably isn't overly important in this case. 
2. I believe the second mark shows the ring to be 95% Palladium. 
3. I believe the third mark shows the assay office was Birmingham. 
4. I have no idea what the fourth mark means. 

Out of interest, anyone got any pro's and con's to share with Palladium as a material for rings? Seems to me the pro's including permanent colour (no plating required like white gold), robustness (harder than gold/platinum) and price premium (generally low premium over spot price vs other metals, with platinum having significant mark-ups despite lower spot prices). The downsides appear to be tradition (gold + platinum have long standing tradition as jewellery material), availability as fewer places sell them and less jewellers can work with it for resizing etc. Any other big pro's / con's to be aware of? Ta 

🙂

[BackyardBullion]

The last mark is the date letter, saying what year it was made. This can be looked up on The Birmingham Assay Website: https://theassayoffice.com/date-letters

 

[SilverPlatinum]

I never heard of Palladium rings before!

I think silver rings are the best since silver has antimicrobial properties.

[Melon]

3 hours ago, BackyardBullion said:

The last mark is the date letter, saying what year it was made. This can be looked up on The Birmingham Assay Website: https://theassayoffice.com/date-letters

Oh that is interesting, thanks! I bought it new this week so it must have sat in stock a long time, it was their last in stock and probably explains the bargain!  

3 hours ago, SilverPlatinum said:

I never heard of Palladium rings before!

I think silver rings are the best since silver has antimicrobial properties.

I did a little digging when picking out my wedding ring in 2020 and was impressed by the material on paper. I think it's got a lot going for it as a ring material. But nevertheless I suspect most people (myself included) want a traditional material for a wedding ring (Gold/Platinum) which is probably why these haven't taken off more. Average buyer of course won't care less about spot price and probably won't know what Palladium is! 

Silver is definitely a good option too, although I imagine it would need a regular polish? 

[MagnusOpum]

I got some funny looks when I picked a palladium ring - I needed something unlikely to react with certain chemicals I use to avoid staining. 

Definitely well worth it as it's held up to way more abuse than silver or platinum would have plus it's now worth a heck of a lot more than I paid for it... no reason to suspect I'll need to sell though 😅

[StackemHigh]

I have a palladium wedding band, I also have a silver and titanium too just depends of what the occasion is which one i wear.

[ArgentSmith]

1 hour ago, StackemHigh said:

I have a palladium wedding band, I also have a silver and titanium too just depends of what the occasion is which one i wear.

My wedding ring is palladium but it dulled quite quickly, now wear a cheap tungsten carbide band as a stand in which is bullet proof.