Starter Kit. Idea 243 of 500. Cluster 12
Gem and jewellery insurance and insured shipping, so that a buyer abroad can pay safely
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
Put one question to ten dealers in Colombo: how often does an overseas buyer back out because the stone might be lost, stolen or not what was promised on the way. Then ask an insurer and a courier what it costs to cover and carry one stone, door to door, with its report. Write down the fee a dealer would pay per shipment for cover a buyer can read. The proof is a fee both sides accept.
- Who pays first
- A dealer who loses sales to overseas buyers who will not pay for a stone they have never held and cannot see arriving safely.
- What leaves today
- Buyers abroad pay safely only through foreign dealers and platforms, so the island's stones sell through intermediaries who take the trust margin.
Ask first
- National Gem and Jewellery Authority. Ask whether a service insuring and shipping stones for dealers needs its licence or approval.
- Sri Lanka Customs. Ask what papers an insured stone needs to leave, and how its value is declared.
Check before you spend
Confirm what the insurance covers from the dealer's hand to the buyer's door, who certifies the stone before it leaves, and what the buyer can read before paying.
Find out these three numbers
- How often does a buyer abroad back out over the risk in transit?
- What does it cost to insure and carry one stone door to door?
- What fee would a dealer pay per insured shipment?
A comparison from the book
Venice. Chapter Eleven
"a way for strangers to settle up without carrying gold"
Trade grows when strangers can pay each other safely, so the safety itself is worth selling.
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.