Idea 249 of 500. Cluster 12: The gem chain, from Ratnapura to the certificate
A published price index for Ceylon sapphires by size and grade, so the miner knows what he is selling
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
Record, anonymously, what 10 dealers and 10 miners in Ratnapura paid or received for sapphires by size and grade in the last month. Publish the ranges on a single free page and share it with the people you asked. The proof is how many miners return with their next prices and how many dealers dispute the figures.
- Who pays first
- A dealer or buyer abroad who wants a reliable reference price by size and grade and will pay for the full index once miners trust it.
- What leaves today
- Miners sell stones without knowing what they are worth, so the price difference is kept by the first buyer and the best value leaves early.
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 249 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.