My submission on What in the world is Mene 24 karat Gold and Platinum Investment Jewelry?

WHAT IN THE WORLD IS MENE 24 KARAT GOLD AND PLATINUM INVESTMENT JEWELRY? – INFORMATION THAT WOULD MAKE YOU PURCHASE ONE.

WHAT IS THE MEANING OF ‘MENE’

The word ‘Mene’ (which is pronounced “meh-ney”) is an ancient Aramaic word that is very deep in meaning, and with an immutable link between jewelry, gold, and long-term savings. The word Mene has a very deeply rooted history, dating back to 4000 years ago, when it was used as the first written word for money, according to the codes of Hammurabi and Ur-Nammu. [1]

For most of historical data available to us, money (which was originally termed Mene) has always meant a standard measurement of the weight and purity of gold and silver. This means the word ‘Mene’ has for long been associated with precious metals like pure gold, no wonder it is an appropriate name to represent a company that aims at taking the modern day jewelry industry back to the ancient tradition of not only using gold as a means of beautification through jewelries, but also taking advantage of the investment capabilities of the jewelries made from these precious metals like gold and platinum, retaining the custom of one generation passing treasured pieces to the next generation. That company has a brand name called ‘Mene’.

Images reference: Google images

The brand ‘Mene’ started about 2 years ago. Mene 24k gold and platinum investment jewelry (also known as ‘Mene’) was founded by Roy Sebag and Diana w. Picasso (an art historian, and granddaughter of the legendary painter Pablo Picasso), with the general aim of bringing back the ancient tradition and culture, of using jewelry as a means of value preservation, through the use of the potent formular of technology and timeless design.

IMAGES OF DIANA W. PICASSO (Chief Artistic Officer)
Co- founder of Mene

In an interview granted to one of the founders, Roy Sebag, he explained that the idea for Mene was inspired by how consumers buy jewelry in the East in Asia. In India and China for example, consumers always ask what the weight, the value of the gold, and its purity are, taking these parameters as what defines the value of a jewelry. It’s on this thought that Mene was founded, a thought so different from those of every other jewelry maker in the jewelry industry.

This Mene business has been founded on the foundation of transparency, especially in its pricing, where the price of each gold or platinum is being calculate with respect to its weight in grams, and the market value of the precious metal on that particular day. Nothing is being concealed, rather all the adequate information relating to price, which are weight in grams and present market value, are all made available.
Mene as a company, has mastered the art of design, manufacture, and market of pure 24 karat gold and platinum investment jewelry that is sold direct-to-consumer, removing the place of middle men, thereby taking away the hidden middleman fee that the customer would have otherwise paid. Mene carries out the sale of the 24 Karat gold jewelry through retail sale, on direct-to-cutomer basis, through a transparent, innovative, and empowering online experience, on the website www.mene.com

Image screenshot of www.mene.com

The image above is an image of the website www.mene.com.

On October 19, 2017, Mene launched its official website www.mene.com – an invitation only website (‘Invitation only’ meaning that you can only open an account, make purchases, and receive a referral link if only you access the site through someone’s referral link, but anyone may visit every other aspect of the website to check out transparently disclosed jewelry designs and pricing.). Mene is the first online 24 Karat luxury jewelry brand. It enables customers to buy, sell, and exchange jewelry, using the parameter of weight, and at the prevailing daily price for gold as quoted on international bullion markets.

Shanghai international bullion market.

Image reference: Google images.

Also, we can define Mene in relation to it being a wearable wealth, as being an investment of wealth through the use of the precious metals gold and platinum, in the form of jewelry and wearable ornaments. This is different from the investment of wealth in gold bars and coins, but rather investing wealth in wearable jewelries like earings and bracelets.

Having mentioned wearable wealth, let us give a definition to the concept of wearable wealth, and why it is important to the world.

WHAT IS WEARABLE WEALTH, AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO THE WORLD

Wearable wealth is a concept given to the act where a person stores his wealth in the form of investments, and keeps these investments in wearable forms like earrings and bracelets, so that these jewelries can bring other non-financial benefits to the owner– benefits such as fashion, prestige, definition of social status, etc.
It’s important to state here that most precious metal jewelries don’t qualify to be used as investment grade. When you go to most stores and malls, what you find there are 14-18 karat gold. Don’t be fooled by designer jewelries. Designer jewelries are not a practical way of storing wealth. Those designer stores will never buy back your gold at anywhere close to the price you paid for it when you bought it from them.
When we speak of wearable wealth, we are talking about investment-grade jewelry that has been specially designed for wea ring and travelling with your wealth.

4 Ways in which wearable wealth is important to the world.

1 - As a form of collateral
Wearable wealth is a great form of collateral, especially in severe circumstances. For example, if you find yourself in a situation where you need immediate services, you can easily give your jewelries as collateral, stating that if things went wrong, the jewelries can be confiscated. On the other hand, a person who probably had precious stones, but in bar and coin forms, he would most likely not have it on him, and hence not be able to tender it as collateral. And if unfortunately the situation was a life and death issue, his lack of wearable wealth could unfortunately lead to a loss of life.

2 - Building of self-esteem and happiness
From studies on human behavior, what we wear has a way of boosting or diminishing our self-esteem, how good we feel about ourselves, and hence influencing our state of happiness. If you check yourself out, you find out that the day you wore that special jewelry, you felt special.Wearing jewelry has been shown to be a pleasurable and beautiful experience, with the pieces fitting like a velvet glove and contour to the body. Instead of having your wealth locked up in the form of gold coins in one safe, being of no use but financial gain, its best those wealths are invested in wearables like jewelries, so that they can be used to adorn the body, helping to build self-esteem and self-worth, even as they also store value. Jewelries should live on you, and not work in front of you. What makes jewelries timeless and modern is their ability to be of daily function.

3 - Enhanced transportation and security

It is more rampant to hear of situations where people carrying bags of gold coins were robbed, compared to those wearing jewelries. If you see a person carrying gold coins, the probability of those coins being pure gold is high, and hence attracts the eyes of everyone around, especially the wrong eyes. But with jewelries, you don’t know which is which from a distance, and hence a thief would least likely want to take his chances, hence making wearable wealth like jewelries, safer than wealth in gold bars and coins.

Also, in transporting wealth, it is far more convenient and fashionable to carry them on you, than gold coins and bars. It’s far easier to wear them on you, than carrying them in a bag.

4 - Wearable wealth are subject to less tax and reporting complexities
When you have your wealth in wearable forms, they are subject to far less tax than wealth in coin and bar forms. If you have your wealth in jewelries, you pay less tax than if you had it in coins. Also, your wealth in jewelries are less complex to handle than wealth in bars and coins.

PRESENT STRIDES ALREADY MADE BY MENE

• Mene is the first online 24 Karat luxury jewelry brand. You can find a lot of other jewelry marketers online, but Mene alone is the only online 24 karat luxury jewelry brand.
• In December 27, 2017, Mene unveiled its revolutionary digital display vitrine that provides realtime pricing for the pure 24 karat gold pieces displayed within the international bullion market. With this, the customers of Mene can monitor the prices of their jewelry, at every given point in time.
• On Dec 19, 2017, Mene announced the completion of up to $21 million in growth capital to fuel the continued development of the business. Mene has high net investors from Canada, Europe, Asia and the U.S.
  Before this funding round, Mene had raised seed capital from its founders, and Goldmoney Inc, which maintains a 32% equity ownership stake. This round of funding confirms investors’ confidence in Menes unique and disruptive business model, which is re-informing the western consumer of the concept of 24 Karat investment jewelry.
• Mene has been so successful, that it has over the last two years, in addition to its very vibrant and flourishing 24 karat gold and platinum jewelry investment, it has built-out a vertically-integrated business infrastructure, which encompasses, in-house design, manufacturing, software engineering, marketing, and distribution. The company operates its own fulfilment centre in a partnership with The Brinks Company and is capable of shipping jewelry to consumers in 80 countries within 3 days and with full insurance.[2]

FUTURE PLANS OF MENE

Mene is a company that has not only made some ground breaking present strides, but has laid-down plans – a blueprint of its plans for the future. The plans include :

Using the new funds obtained in the fund raising stated in the present strides above, to support the next phase of growth for Mene, which will see further investment in the company’s manufacturing and distribution infrastructure. These funds will also be used for customer acquisition programs in both online and offline channels.

Also, the company will also lay the foundation for its online retail business model, which will be unveiled in early 2018. The new model will funnel customer’s foot traffic from a global network of luxury boutique-style Mene shops into its centralized web app and distribution capabilities.
Additional designs are introduced every week on the website, and limited edition collaborations will be launched with artists and tastemakers in the future. [3]

CELEBRITIES WEARING MENE 24 KARAT GOLD

Maria Borges Stuns – Maria Borges is an Angolan fashion model. She was named Forbes Africa Magazine’s top model of 2013. She made history on 10 November 2015, by being the first black model to ever walk in the Victoria’s Secret fashion show, whilst wearing her natural afro hair.
The Victoria secret Supermodel stunned the audience of the Gala during the Milan Fashion Week, wearing a Mene 24 karat Gold chocker and the Mene Stacking Cuff. [4]

AWARDS

In just 2 years of existence, Mene co-founder and Chief Artistic Officer Diana W. Picass was awarded the Chevalier and Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Letters of France, by Jeean-Jacques Aillagon, for her work on Mene investment jewelry.

HOW DOES MENE DISRUPT AND DIFFERENTIATE FROM THE CURRENT JEWELRY INDUSTRY

‘I believe the future of luxury is transparency, what will differentiate luxury brands moving forward, is their ability to be transparent about their motivation, products, and their origin.’ – Anja Rubik (creative advisor)

The above quote introduces us into the mindset of those at the helm of affairs at Mene, making us see the reason why Mene stands out. Mene stands outfrom others in the jewelry industry in the following ways :

1 - 24 KARAT PURITY

Other jewelry makers

Other jewelry marketers and sellers in the industry, deal on man-made chemical alloys of 14-18 karat (58-75%). They do this because they don’t want to pay the extra price required to get pure 24 karat gold. It takes more capital, time, and expertise to get pure 24 karat gold in large quantity. Since these companies are not ready to make this sacrifice to please their customers, they follow short cuts, like using alloys to make their jewelries.
The disadvantage of chemical alloys is that they tarnish with time. They are not indestructible like genuine pure 24 Karat gold, so if you buy them, they would not last, and hence can not serve the purpose as investment gold or platinum.

Mene Difference

The Mene company have made it a strong objective that their jewelries will never be crafted from ‘rose gold’ or ‘white gold’. This is because these two alloys of gold are man-made alloys that are made by diluting gold with other abundant metals like copper & nickel, producing alloys that tarnish with time due to oxidation.
It is a well-known fact that most Industry jewelry makers have focused on diluting precious metal content with inferioir metallic elements that tarnish with time, failing to achieve the primary objective of fine jewelry : to forever bind cherished memories in a timeless object that has intrinsic savings value.
Mene jewelry is crafted from pure 24 karat gold, which is the purest form of gold.

2 - RADICAL TRANSPARENCY

Other jewelry makers.

Jewelry producers have made it a custom to not publicly disclose the weight and value of precious metals, especially in the West, unlike in the East where the weight and value of the gold must be well displayed. When they do this, they can earn close to 80% of the original purchase price as revenue. This means that you are only getting 20% of the gold you paid for.

Mene Difference

Like I said in the quote above, one of the main backbone of Mene is to be transparent with prices. When Mene is involved, the pricing of the Mene is broken out by the weight of the gold and the gold value – plus Menes design fee. Nothing is hidden or concealed.
Mene has a standard fee (premium) of not more than 20% of the precious metal value each day. This fee takes care of the cost of designing and manufacturing the jewelry, since the pure 24 karat gold is converted from raw form to well-designed jewelries. The 20% takes care of the cost of this design and manufacture. So if you have a $1000 Mene earring, the earring will have a golds worth of $800, and the remaining $200 is the fee charged by Mene for the design and manufacture of the jewelry.

3 - STORE OF ENDURING VALUE

‘‘for every gram of gold or platinum on earth, there are 60 grams of silver, 5000 grams of saphires, and 400,000 grams of diamonds” [5]

Others jewelry makers

The above quote shows that diamond is far more abundant than gold in nature, that is in the ground. This means diamond should automatically be less valuable than gold, but because these companies that deal on diamonds don’t want to spend much in trying to get the gold, they have decided to create a hype around the diamond, so that the populace would desire it to pure gold.

Mene Difference

Diana Widmaier Picasso, cofounder of Mene, was asked if she would consider going into other gemstones like diamonds, and she said she wanted to focus more on gold and platinum. She first thought using only two materials would limit design possibilities, but it’s turned out to be a fascinating, even metaphysical experience.
Also, Mene did not want to use gemstones, since they were not as good as precious stones as store of value. The gemstones like diamonds are far more abundant that precious metals like gold and platinum, and hence have a higher chance of losing value than precious metals like gold and platinum.

I hope I have been able to convince all my readers that Mene 24 karat Gold and Platinum Investment Jewelry is the best form of investment out there.
You can visit the website to get much more information, by clicking my link (am a member of the Mene family now, you can join the family be registering on the site)

https://Mene.com/invite/pFa5pC

References
[1] https://mene.com
[2] https://mene.com
[3] https://mene.com
[4] https://mene.com/world-of-mene/events/maria-borges-stuns-in-mene-at-amfar-gala-milano
[5] https://mene.com