These golden treasures that weave our family stories

Clément remembers the weight of the bag. This morning in 2018, in Metz (Moselle), the young man accompanied his mother to the bank to empty a safe, the existence of which they had learned upon the death of his maternal grandfather. “We went there like flowers, expecting to find three or four worthless relics. »

Stunned, they discovered “an impressive quantity” of ingots and gold coins. “At the time, we laughed. It felt like we were in a movie scene! We put everything in a bag. Back at home, we closed the kitchen shutters to count. »

But, according to the grandson, this unexpected legacy quickly turned out to be “poisoned”. No trace of proof of purchase or certificates attesting to the quality of the metal, its provenance… The grandfather obviously acquired this gold “black”. No doubt he thought he was doing the right thing, he who, during the Second World War, had hidden gold coins in loaves of bread.

“This inheritance has become a burden: should we declare it and leave almost half of its value to the State? Or let him sleep when he could have saved us from taking out big loans to buy our homes? » Clément’s mother decides to sell part of it “under the cover, thanks to somewhat surprising contacts”. But the other part is still sleeping in a trunk, “it’s a shame and annoying,” concludes Clément.

Élodie, for her part, could not contain her emotion at the jeweler to whom she had entrusted her recently deceased mother’s wedding ring to adjust it to her size: “When I was able to put it on my finger, I burst into tears. I also wear my grandmother’s ring: three generations of women on my right hand. It reminds me of what I owe them. »

Very sensitive to transmission, this history teacher likes to recall her modest origins: “My grandfather did not have the means to buy a wedding ring for his fiancée. For their wedding, he fashioned one out of a coin. It was only at their golden wedding anniversary that she had a real wedding ring, the one I wear today. » She is already wondering about what comes next, and hopes that her two teenage daughters will in turn recover these jewels.

An ancient imagination

These anecdotes wonderfully illustrate the two sides of our relationship with gold, between emotional bond and economic interest, between opacity and ostentation. And our ambivalence, torn as we are between the monetary value of the metal and the moral obligations that accompany any transmission.

The dilemma arises particularly during periods when the price of gold is very favorable. This was the case at the end of January, when the ounce – the unit of measurement, i.e. 31 g – reached the record of 4,612 euros, falling to around 4,200 euros at the time of writing these lines.

From there to taking the plunge and selling? Not so simple. The term “safe haven” or “safe bet”, so often heard, only applies to those who have a minimum knowledge of it. For others, gold summons an ancient imagination, made up of treasures, thefts, losses, ingots hidden under mattresses, fantasized wealth…

Consulting a sworn numismatist or the auctioneers of Crédit municipal would already allow you to see things more clearly. (read box at end of article). Because how do you know if the tarnished coin found at the bottom of a drawer has any value? And this out-of-fashion adornment? Who should you contact without feeling like you’re being tricked? What do you do when, like Clément’s mother, you have no document to prove that you actually own the object?

The price of physical gold, which fluctuates enormously, doesn’t help matters. However, these reasons for hesitation can be overcome with good advice, that of a notary to begin with.

An emotional connection with jewelry

However, there are springs that are all the more powerful because they are intimate. More than any other metal, and in all countries of the world, “gold has a particular, transgenerational and transcultural aura,” notes Fanny Kopf, director of pawnbroking at Crédit municipal de Paris. “(Collectible) coins tell stories: they carry much more than their metal value, and are often bought or offered for specific reasons,” confirms Nicolas Dumont, commercial director of the Monnaie de Paris. Their owners have an emotional connection to these objects and find it difficult to resell them. »

Thus, selling the golden louis received at one’s baptism, the paperweight medal carefully chosen by an ancestor is not trivial. And this is even more true for jewelry. The Brazilian anthropologist Aline Lopes Rochedo dedicated her thesis to them in 2021. If her study focuses on Brazilian families, her observations also apply to our society: family jewels, she notes, “interweave death with life by connecting the living, the dead and unborn children, and by anticipating future deaths”.

So Sophie inherited a ring that her grandmother had made from a tie pin. She in turn transformed it into a pair of earrings. She wanted a clover shape to represent her three children. A story is thus woven between four generations.

More surprising, Florence’s gold bangle created from her grandmother’s dental crowns: “It may disgust some people, but I love this jewelry. An idea from my mother, who knew my attachment to my grandmother. » Not all transmissions take place so peacefully: gold, one suspects, also stirs up jealousies between heirs.

Freedom, security, inalterability

Note that, because jewelry is largely gendered, gold is often a women’s affair. Saliha, regular at Crédit municipal (read box at end of article), puts her jewelry “on the nail” to get something to help her children, “without talking to (her) husband. »

Marie-Paule, aged 80, appreciates gold for the freedom it gives her. A former trader, based in Vendée, she masters accounts and interest rates. And supplements her life insurance with ingots, which she brings “through (her) Crédit Mutuel agency”. Suffice it to say that his purchases are declared.

But, she reflected, “let’s say I die tomorrow.” My son takes the gold, he won’t have any fees. » And where a transfer requires justification and traceability, she prefers to give up a bar: “The less it is visible, the more it suits me. »

All the gold on Earth is extraterrestrial, literally: it comes from meteorites that struck our planet at the beginning of its existence. No wonder this pure, unalterable and precious metal symbolizes permanence. On the scale of human generations, it runs through our lives like a common thread of transmitted heritage. Firstly rich in our stories and our affects.