Watching Downton Abbey can alert you to all kinds of antique precious-metal items that you can find if you’re shopping online, at antique stores, at estate sales . . . just about everywhere old metal items can be found. Here’s a checklist of items that we noticed during just one episode of the show...

So, what are palladium salts? They are compounds of palladium and other chemicals that are most often used in the production and testing of stainless and other steels. Some palladium salts are also used as catalysts in the production of other chemicals. Here are some common forms of palladium salts that are used in industry, and that you might come to own if you acquire a chemical business or an old industrial site . . .

The lesson for real estate developers is to make sure to recover precious metals from appliances – or at the very least, to work out a deal with the scrap metal recycling company to share the value of precious metals.