It’s called Menē and is an American jewelry company that offers only 24-carat gold, also as an investment form. In a transparent way ♦ ︎
People invest in jewelry for the pleasure of wearing them, but also to secure some money for the future. In the case of necessity, in short, a jewel in gold can always be sold. This, at least, is what most people think. But, often, we forget that the gold jewels are almost entirely composed of one part of gold. An 18-karat gold jewel, for example, contains only 75% gold, the rest is copper, nickel or other metals. 14 or 9 carat gold has an even lower percentage of gold. In short, if you plan to sell a gold jewel, know that at the time of sale will be calculated only the percentage of gold contained.
But there are also those who have decided to offer something different: 24 carat gold jewelery, that is completely made of yellow metal. In short, an alternative to buying an ingot.
Menē is an American company that offers jewelry exclusively in pure gold, or platinum. They are hypoallergenic and antimicrobial, they do not fog up. Obviously, since they are made of 24 carat pure gold, metal is only in a natural color: yellow. The Maison was founded by a niece of Picasso, Diana Widmaier-Picasso, artistic director, and Sunjoo Moon, chief design officer.
The jewels-investment combination is proposed with an unusual transparency. For example, a hard bracelet weighing 78.27 grams at the current time (March 2019) is proposed at $ 4370. Specifying that the value of gold is 3388 dollars, while 982 dollars is the competence of Menē, that is, its profit and the cost to make the jewel. Perhaps it is the only case in the world where a jeweler makes public how much is his margin.
Both of the founder also want to dispel the myth that jewelry can not be made of 24-carat gold because the metal in its pure state is too soft. Instead, they argue that the malleability of the metal over time allows it to adapt to the volume of the body and is therefore a positive aspect. The gold used is ethically guaranteed and comes from the gold mines of Nevada (USA) and of Ontario (Canada). Gold has the Responsible Sourcing certification of the London Bullion Market. By the way: Menē is an Aramaic word taken from the Hammurabi code, the first written word to indicate money.
However, it is important to underline an aspect that is not secondary: gold is often considered a safe haven, which protects from inflation or the collapse of the stock exchange and, therefore, a easy investment. This is not the case: even if in the long run gold has retained a good part of its value, its price varies over time. Its cost can go up a lot, but it can also go down, as happened in the past few years. It’s something to keep in mind before buying a jewel thinking it’s a safe investment. It is not. But what does not change is the pleasure of wearing it. Giulia Netrese
