Starter Kit. Idea 242 of 500. Cluster 12
Moonstone from Meetiyagoda as a named origin, sold on the name of the mine and its blue sheen
The mechanism, from the book
The sapphire is mined here and cut here, and its value is certified in Basel or Lucerne 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.
The 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.
Ask first
- National Gem and Jewellery Authority. Ask whether Meetiyagoda moonstone can be described by origin on a certificate.
- National Crafts Council. Ask whether they can show moonstone jewellery at their fairs.
Check before you spend
Whether naming the origin on a label is allowed and can be proved, and whether the moonstone parcel came from licensed mining.
Find out these three numbers
- What does a cut moonstone pendant sell for abroad?
- How much rough moonstone comes out of Meetiyagoda each month?
- Which jewellers would stock a named-origin range?
A comparison from the book
Ethiopia. Chapter Eleven
"Owning the name did not change who got the money."
A unique origin is a start; the money comes from cutting, setting and selling it yourself.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.