In 1981, a 10-year-old Vietnamese girl,
her parents and nine brothers and sisters began preparing for a perilous
journey, a journey they knew they might not survive.
Since the fall of Saigon and the end of
the Vietnam War in April 1975, life had been hard for the little girl’s
family. The Communist government of North Vietnam inherited a country deeply
divided, devastated by war, and on the verge of economic collapse. In an
attempt to unify the country, the government instituted a centrally planned
program of economic reform, instituting price controls, forcing farmers into
agricultural collectives and nationalizing manufacturing. It was the
beginning of what would come to be known to the Vietnamese people as the “10
bad years.”
In September 1975, the Vietnamese
government declared the new “liberation” dong to be worth 500 of the dong
previously issued by South Vietnam, where the girl and her family lived.
From 1976 to 1980, the Vietnamese economy
barely grew, even as the population swelled by a million people each year.
Inflation soared upwards of 700%. Food grew scarce, and starvation ensued, as
Soviet-style farming collectives failed, and drought, flooding and typhoons
exasperated the crisis. Many businessmen lost everything, and the suicide
rate skyrocketed. The little girl’s father’s family business was seized by
the Communist government, and the family faced the reality of having to raise
a family of 10 children in a hostile environment, amid civil unrest and an
uncertain economy.
Finally, the little girl’s parents knew
they had to choose: to leave their home and everything they owned behind in
the hope of finding a better life for their children, or to stay in Vietnam,
where their prospects for the future seemed to worsen by the day.
In those days, many people were fleeing
the coast of Vietnam in boats, desperate for the chance at freedom and a
brighter future. Those considering the voyage heard horrifying stories of
pirates, rapes, capture by Vietnamese soldiers, and drownings at sea.
Sixty-eight passengers prepared to join the little girl’s family on a boat,
carrying what little wealth they had with them on their bodies, in the form
of gold jewelry. It was a stark memory the little girl would carry with her
for the rest of her life.
The 80 passengers in the tiny fishing
boat were among the lucky ones: After seven days at sea, they were able to
land in Indonesia, where they found shelter in a refugee camp. All had
survived the voyage, but their struggles were not over. Food was scarce in
the camp, and there were few resources to support the constant influx of
tired, hungry refugees. The little girl’s family used their gold jewelry to
trade with the local merchants for food, medicine, and other necessities of
life. It was that gold jewelry that enabled them to survive the many months
they endured on the island.
Eventually the little girl and her family
made their way to the United States. Today, her parents, now in their 80s,
are still living, and most of her siblings reside near her in Southern
California. And today she is a member of the GoldSilver.com team.
“I was too young to comprehend the
magnitude of the danger,” she recalls of that long-ago journey. “It was a
life-changing experience that shaped who I am. It is my history. I am very
fortunate, and very appreciative of the life I have.”
Our staff member’s story really hit home
with those of us at GoldSilver.com, where our mission is to educate others
about the importance of holding physical gold. Throughout history people have
turned to gold to preserve their wealth and provide security for their
families in times of crisis. Similarly, the tradition of investing in,
giving, and wearing gold jewelry is deeply ingrained in most of the world’s
cultures. That remains true of Vietnam, the fourth largest consumer of gold
in Asia, after China, India and Thailand, according to a 2012 Standard
Chartered report. As is true of many Asian cultures, many Vietnamese people
still save in gold rather than currency, particularly now, with spiraling
inflation and the dong losing value. Gold jewelry is traditionally given to
new Vietnamese brides by the groom’s family. In India and China, gold jewelry
has both ceremonial and financial significance, a symbol of abundance by
which a family’s wealth can be passed from generation to generation with the
fastening of a clasp.
But there is a deeply practical aspect to
the owning of gold jewelry as well. In societies such as Vietnam’s, where
political orders have undergone frequent turbulence and economies have been
centrally planned into crisis, the people even today trust gold far more than
they trust their national currencies. In Vietnam today, currency is used for
most transactions, but the purchase of real estate or capital goods requires
gold.
But historically, governments whose national
currencies are floundering inevitably look for ways to disincentivize the use
of gold as money. In many parts of the world, that’s happening today.
Currently, in an attempt to persuade people to sell their gold bullion, the
State Bank of Vietnam has forbidden banks from paying interest on deposits of
gold, and forced banks to charge customers a fee to store their gold instead.
Similarly, with the rupee at an all-time low, the government of India, the
biggest gold consumer in the world, has increased import duties on gold
bullion. And much closer to home, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt in
1933 forced U.S. citizens to sell their gold bullion to the Federal Reserve
and banned them from owning gold coins or bars.
But gold jewelry, that lovely bracelet or
sparkling necklace that catches the light as your daughter turns to greet
you, has never in modern history been subject to those kinds of government
interventions. While one is almost certain to be stopped at Customs for his
or her bag of gold coins, the passenger wearing a beautiful gold chain raises
nary an eyebrow. A significant amount of wealth can be transported anywhere
in the world simply by wearing it as a beautiful accessory rather than
carrying it as money.
Of course, most of us will not be forced
to flee in fear for our lives, as that 10-year-old future GoldSilver employee
and her family were back in 1981. But all of us are at risk of losing the
value of our savings, as the purchasing power of our national currencies
falls lower and lower. Most of us will probably never need to transport our
wealth to foreign shores in response to political upheaval or government
heavy-handedness. But in our uncertain modern world, conditions change
quickly, governments and the financial elite hold enormous power, and when
our unsustainable, debt-addicted monetary system crashes for the final time,
events will turn on a dime.
Why Gold Bullion Jewelry?
We at GoldSilver.com don’t generally
recommend gold jewelry for investment purposes nor invest in it ourselves,
just as we don’t recommend investing in numismatics, or collectible coins.
That’s because high-quality gold jewelry typically sells for two, three or
even four times the spot price of the gold contained in the jewelry. In other
words, when you purchase gold jewelry as a beautiful ornament, you’re really
paying for the craftsmanship and appearance rather than for the gold it
contains.
However, as one of the world’s largest
gold and silver dealers, we are able to offer our customers our 22K gold
bullion jewelry closer to gold's spot price. In other words, when you
purchase our 22” men’s or women’s gold necklace or 7” women’s bracelet, you
will be purchasing the gold content of the pieces, just as you would if you
were to purchase a U.S. Gold Eagle coin.
Gift That Keeps On Giving
Gold bullion jewelry has characteristics
different from gold bullion coins that for some people make it an attractive
addition to an investment portfolio. To begin with, as we approach the
holiday gift-giving season, our 22K gold bullion jewelry makes a wonderful
gift for loved ones: not only is it beautiful, but its investment value and
prospective increase in value make it a far-sighted and highly practical
gift. In fact, these pieces are so beautiful the receiver won’t even care
that their value is based on their gold content. A gift of these
investment-quality pieces can be a way of passing down generational wealth in
a way that is both traditional and pragmatic.
Discrete Way of Transporting or
Transferring Wealth
Anyone crossing international borders is
required to declare whether they are carrying $10,000 or more worth of
financial instruments. But jewelry—even our 22K gold bullion jewelry—is not a
financial instrument. Although we advise anyone planning to cross into
another country to research the specific laws governing gold jewelry, in most
instances one could wear far in excess of $10,000 worth of gold jewelry
without triggering any reporting requirement.
Likewise, in the event of a currency
crisis, taking a piece of gold jewelry in to sell for cash would draw far
less attention than going to the corner gold dealer carrying a sack of coins.
You could even break off a few links to sell rather than selling an entire
necklace or bracelet. In fact, were the government to ban ownership of gold
due to currency crisis, gold jewelry would most likely be exempted from the
ban, just as it was when the U.S. government outlawed ownership of gold in
1933.
Just as gold and silver bullion coins represent
the surest way to transfer to another asset class when the precious metals
cycle ends, we are offering a two-way market for our gold bullion jewelry as
well. In other words, we promise to buy back our 22K gold jewelry from you,
when the time is right for you to cash in on your investment.
Practical Addition to Your
Portfolio
We at GoldSilver, including Mike Maloney,
continue to believe that gold and silver bullion coins will offer the safest,
best-performing long-term return on our investment. But because of the
high-quality content, practicality and discretion offered by our 22K gold
bullion jewelry, we’re adding these beautiful pieces to our own portfolios as
a means of diversifying our holdings.
As Mike advises all of our customers, the
most important thing is that each individual create a financial plan that
makes sense for his or her unique circumstances. If investing a portion of
your portfolio in our beautiful gold bullion jewelry makes sense for you and
your family, we have made it as easy as possible for you to do so. Simply
select the products you want and add them to your shopping cart, just as you
would any of our other products. We hope your purchase of our 22K gold
bullion jewelry will bring pleasure to you or someone you love; we are
confident it is a purchase that will always be valued.
