Iridium (Ir) slab previously owned by Dr. Oliver Sacks

Iridium slab - 1.7 pounds - .99995 bullion

We have been very fortunate to acquire an iconic piece of American scientific and pop culture history. Certain to be the envy of precious metals enthusiasts and element collectors the world over, this exotic elemental masterpiece is one of a kind. Originally owned by the great Dr. Oliver Wolf Sacks, is this hefty slab of ultra-pure iridium. Dr. Sacks was a London born neurologist, natural historian, scientist, writer, and artist who spent most of his professional career practicing and teaching clinical neurology in New York City at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, NYU, and Columbia University. He was also an incredibly prolific and internationally acclaimed author, with many of his nonfiction books based on his research and medical case studies as well as his fascination with chemistry including Awakenings (1973), The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat (1985), Hallucinations (2012), The River of Consciousness (2017), An Anthropologist on Mars (1995), and Uncle Tungsten (2001). The 1990 movie Awakenings and the 1999 movie At First Sight are based on case studies from his writings. Even after his death in 2015, Dr. Oliver Wolf Sacks' life and legacy in investigating and treating disorders of the mind is the basis of the current hit series Brilliant Minds where Zachary Quinto stars as the larger-than-life neurologist Dr. Oliver Wolf (Sacks). Oliver was an admittedly shy man whose iconic brilliance and deep care for his patients was able to capture the attention of the world through his writings on the inner workings of our minds and how it interacts with the beauty and challenges of the physical world within it is constrained.

Oliver Sacks' fascination with chemistry and, in particular, the periodic table of the elements from a very young age spilled over into his later years when he started memorializing some of his birthdays based on the atomic numbers of his favorite elements. He gifted himself a crytalized chunk of hafnium for his 72nd birthday and had this very slab of iridium produced for his 77th. Considered his most prized of posessions was this iridium slab which weighs 1.7 pounds (25.035 troy ounces). It was made in collaboration with Theodore Gray (author of the extraordinary and visually stunning "The Elements" book, also sold here at RWMM) in an electron beam furnace at Kaistar R&D in New Jersey during the Summer of 2004 (see below link of Dr. Sacks holding this very same iridium slab in front of the furnace that produced it). It is 99.995% pure. It is in the same exact form as was originally produced for Dr. Sacks, with some original minor imperfections on it's surface and edges including a distinct oval shaped patch of crystalization that fills much of it's frontal surface. It's these same imperfections that make it wonderfully unique and easily identifiable as the same iridium slab seen in historic pictures and videos of Dr. Sacks. Any attempt to reproduce this masterpiece would require a multimillion dollar furnace, deep space vacuums, and some serious insider heavy industry connections to arrange it with a willingness to go big or go home with one of the rarest elements in the universe. Even with the same starting materials, the electron beam furnace, and the same water-cooled copper mold, it still couldn’t be precisely replicated. Due to iridium's incredible density, no other metal with the exception of osmium could weigh as much in this form but a similar slab of osmium would look quite different, given its characteristic blueish hue. It therefore is and will always be one of a kind! To hold this hefty slab of beautiful metal in the palm of your hand, with the most amount of matter ever packed into a space such as this, is an experience unlikely to be forgotten. It was thus said to be Dr. Sacks' favorite inanimate object and he always kept it close by on the desk of his Manhattan apartment (see below links). If you want a piece of history that was the prized possession of one of the most brilliant minds to bridge the 20th and 21st centuries, then you may be the next in line to own his treasure.

Iridium was discovered by Smithson Tennant in 1803 and named after the Greek goddess Iris due to the brilliant colors of its salts. A member of the platinum group metals, iridium is the most corrosion resistant metal, is the second most dense (imperceptibly so), has the second highest modulus of elasticity (edged out only by osmium in both of these properties), is virtually impervious to all known acids, and has an exceedingly high melting point. It is therefore nearly indestructible. Iridium is also one of the rarest elements in the Earth's crust with an estimated concentration of 0.001 parts per million (gold is about 40 times more abundant). It is estimated that only 6 or 7 tonnes of iridium is mined worldwide annually (compared with about 3500 tonnes of gold and 180 tonnes of platinum).  It is used in the electronics, aerospace, and chemical industries. Iridium is not known to be toxic and this solid form is considered safe (unless you drop it on your foot!).