Platinum

[Racetyme]

I think some truly rare luxury item should be introduced. As it is hematite, limestone, and coal are the most valuable items in the game. Some new material, and I think platinum would be good, could be worn to show extreme wealth. Make it only available at about one place on each island, in some mountains somewhere, or otherwise isolated place, gatherable only very slowly, and very hard to refine and make into jewelry, I suggest that 3 years or more be required to mine the platinum, refine it, and make it into a ring. If you saw somebody with one of those babies, you would know they were really wealthy, and it could create an entire new group of cantrians, the platinum traders.

[Sho]

Platinum exists, though it's not quite that rare.

[Pie]

But how many people will the platinum traders have to trade with?

so what i am saying is.. How much will the demand be, compared to the supply of platinum?

[Sho]

I doubt there will be as much demand as Racetyme expects. Unless platinum has an actual use, the usual supply-and-demand rules don't quite work - demand for a luxury item can't go past a certain point in Cantr, where concern for personal appearance and desire to display wealth are less (present, for sure, but less) than in real life. If it's made as rare and hard to get as is suggested, nobody will bother. Better to get a gold ring that takes a tenth of the labor and shines as bright.
Not to say that platinum should have a use. An ultra-rare resource with a significant use would merely have the effect of disabling that function for the vast majority of Cantrians, to no good effect (unless you like watching players complain on the forums).