“ PRECIOUS (O. Fr. precios, mod. précieux, Lat. pretiosus, of high value or price, pretium) , costly or of high value, particularly used in political economy of those metals which are “ valuable enough to be used as a standard of value and abundant enough for coinage ” (The Century Dictionary) . The term is thus practically confined to gold and silver. Platinum in theory may be included as it was used for coinage in Russia in 1828 ”