The average energy level spacing 6 at the Fermi level has been almost exclusively used as a global indicator for predicting quantum size effect in metal nanoparticles and its detailed local characteristics have usually been neglected. Here, we report new (195)pt NMR evidence obtained on octanethiol-protected Pt nanoparticles with an average particle size of 1.0 +/- 0.3 nm at room temperature which shows that the local characteristics of 6 can be discerned and are directly related to the local variations of electronic properties of the system in its 'bulk' metallic state. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.