NOT Gold! NOT Silver! So what else have I been Stacking?

G'day.

To state the obvious:

Those of us who Stack Gold & Silver generally all do it for the same logical reasons.

• We know that Gold & Silver won't directly provide us with any earnings (no interest or dividends).
• Our earnings will come over time in the form of capital gains.
• We understand that our Stacks are a store of value that will offset the inflation caused by the Fiat Currency system.
• Most importantly, owning Gold & Silver is the ultimate insurance policy!

When the Fiat Currency system finally crashes and burns, there will need to be other forms of money to take over and give people the ability to trade and survive.

The 3 most obvious replacements will be Gold, Silver and Cryptocurrencies. All of them will have their place in a new monetary system.
There are many pro's and con's for each of them but in general the smart people realise that they will need to have some of each to prosper in the future.
How much of each is debatable and up to each individual to work out for themselves.

I'm sure we can all agree on this overall concept BUT has anybody thought there could be other commodities (not just precious metals) that could be a store of value and form of currency when paper money dies?

So that brings me to Pearls!
Throughout history, Pearls have been a symbol of wealth, status and also a form of currency!
Almost all civilizations and cultures have seen Pearls as valuable and tradeable.
Not much has changed in modern times.

A while back, I spent 12 years working for a large and famous pearling company and was fortunate to be able to buy good quality pearls at very cheap prices. On occasions, the owner even gifted me some fantastic pearls.

There are many forms of pearls and it would take too long to explain them all in depth.
Generally speaking, the main categories are:

• Saltwater and Freshwater (Saltwater are much more valuable than Freshwater).
• Natural and Cultured (Natural are extremely rare and expensive so we won't go into them here)

Other than Natural, the most valuable Pearls today are Australian South Sea Cultured Pearls.
These are grown by inserting a bead made from Mississippi Mussel Shell in to a Pearl Oyster called Pinctada Maxima.

Sometimes, as part of this process and by accident, a second pearl forms in the Oyster Shell.
These are not smooth shaped like the beaded pearls but are odd shaped and very unique.
Technically, because the Oyster has been operated on, these cannot be considered Natural but they are the closest thing you will find to a Natural Pearl.
These Pearls are called Keshi.

The per gram price for good to high quality Australian South Sea Keshi Pearls is very similar to gold at current prices.
Around $50 to$60 AU per gram. Gem quality are much higher and priced individually.

The Owner of the company I worked for had a policy of not selling any of the Keshi that was produced.
I guess he's really just a High End Stacker. His philosophy is that by keeping them off the market, the price will remain high and should there be a downturn in the Pearl Market, they would have significant resource to fall back on.

Exceptions to this rule were a few VIP customers, their own Jewellery Stores and some staff who were allowed to buy them.
Based on all of this, I just focused on buying and collecting Keshi Pearls.
Just before I left the company I was able to buy a nice bag of Keshi from an affilliated company for a really good price.

So now I have a "Stack" of Keshi Pearls.

Here are some photos of my collections - I hope you enjoy them!

Gem Quality Keshi - The pride of my collection.

Also some nice gold nuggets - I call Keshi "Nugget Pearls" because of their shapes.

The smoother shapes are more valuable than the rougher shapes.

This is the good to high quality part of my collection.

These types of pearls would normally be found in good quality jewellery.

More average quality but still worth about $10 to $20 per piece.
These are generally used in unusual jewellery designs where the flaws can be covered.