Why is platinum jewelry more expensive than gold?

Platinum used for jewelry is considered a pure metal, as it quite hard and does not need an additional alloy metal to make it strong enough for wear. Gold is an extremely soft metal, so much so that you could easily bend pure gold with your fingers. Gold must be blended with small amounts of other stronger metals (i.e. copper, nickel) to make it sturdy enough for everyday wear. The higher karat weight (10k, 14k, 18k) of your jewelry piece the more gold it contains. This difference in the hardness of the metals translates to price when creating a jewelry piece.  For example, to create a jewelry piece in 14k gold the designer needs 57.5%  gold precious metal and 42.5% alloy; to create a jewelry piece in platinum you would need 100% in platinum precious metal. More precious metal translates to a more expensive piece of jewelry.  See the photo below for a side by side comparison of gold vs. platinum cost at today's metal market prices.