Idea 242 of 500. Cluster 12: The gem chain, from Ratnapura to the certificate
Moonstone from Meetiyagoda as a named origin, since nobody else has it
The mechanism, from the book
The sapphire is mined here and cut here, and its value is certified in Basel and turned into money in Geneva. Every step of that chain can be built at home, and the first one is the piece of paper.
Every idea in cluster 12 uses this mechanism.
A first step
Buy a small parcel of moonstone from Meetiyagoda, have the best pieces cut and set as simple pendants, and label each with its origin. Show them to 5 jewellers and gift shops and post them in 3 online groups for jewellery collectors abroad. The proof is which buyers ask for more and what they pay.
- Who pays first
- A collector or jeweller abroad who sells moonstone as generic and would pay a premium for a named origin nobody else can claim.
- What leaves today
- Moonstone from Meetiyagoda is sold loose and unnamed, so the one origin that nobody else has earns no premium for its name.
The idea and the mechanism are from the book. The first step was written for this site as a suggestion; if you know a better one, say so.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
The only test any idea on this site has to pass. The four rules that go with it are here.
In the book
- Ch. TwoAn Island Nobody Has Counted
The sapphires in the island's inventory - Ch. SixteenThe Bridge
Basel, Geneva and the Swiss gem bridge
More from cluster 12
- 236A gem laboratory in Colombo to the standard of the Swiss ones, with a foreign partner if it must, so the origin report is issued where the stone was mined
- 237Jewellery design studios employing the young designers who now leave for Bangkok and Dubai
- 238A Ratnapura mine visit sold as a day, with a licensed dealer and a laboratory report on anything you buy
- 239Gem-cutting apprenticeships, paid, with the graduates employed by the studios above
- 240A Ceylon sapphire brand for engagement rings, sold online to Sri Lankans abroad and beyond, with the stone's story traced from pit to finger
- 241Auction days in Colombo for the trade, with international buyers flown in, the way Geneva does it twice a year
Idea 242 of the 500 in the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? Every one can be started by one person, one family or one small firm.