OLD FALSE TEETH.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17570, 22 June 1925, Page 3

OLD FALSE TEETH.

——♦ j CONTAIN PRECIOUS METAL. Many people who have old false teeth at home do not know that the plates they no longer use contain a metal which to-day is selling at £22 an ounce, four times as much as the i tiling price of gold. The precious mc.tal sought is platinum—but it is not plentiful. One often sees advertisements in the newspapers: “Artificial teeth purchased; highest prices paid/’ And mampeople might justly wonder what the i dealer docs with them once they come j into his possession. It is not the teeth themselves that the price is paid for; i the little platinum pins are what the dealer wants. He knows that the teeth I and the vulcanite are valueless; but the platinum is worth money. However, tire quantity recovered is seldom heavy, and the price paid is never more than a few shillings. “People have come along to me thinking that they were going to get three or lour pounds for their false teeth,” said a dealer this morning, “ but that was because they thought I was buying the teeth. It is not the plate that we pay : *°r, but the platinum, although I do I n °f think trie dentists are using much jin the manufacture of teeth now. It j i* mostly gold that is put into the • teeth these days, and of course this is j worth nothing like the value of plati-