Starter Kit. Idea 249 of 500. Cluster 12
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.
The 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.
Ask first
- National Gem and Jewellery Authority. Ask whether they publish any price information now, and how it is gathered.
- Data Protection Authority. Ask what you must do to keep dealers' and miners' price reports anonymous.
Check before you spend
Whether dealers and miners agree to report prices anonymously, and how you protect each person's numbers from being traced.
Find out these three numbers
- How many dealers and miners would report prices each month?
- How wide is the price range for one size and grade?
- Who would pay to keep the index going?
A comparison from the book
New Zealand. Chapter Eleven
"a buyer plays them off against each other, and the price falls to whatever the most desperate grower will accept."
A miner who knows the going price cannot be pushed down to the most desperate seller's price.
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.