The DPPL Journal
Practical writing from a working bullion counter on New Road — how silver is priced in Nepal, how to check a bar before you pay for it, how to store it, and why the metal has held value for five thousand years.
History
Almost every society that found gold decided it was precious, independently and without consulting each other. The reasons are older than economics, and they have not changed.
2 October 20269 min read
Read the article →History
Nepal has almost no gold of its own. What it has instead is a location, and several centuries of craftsmen who knew what to do with the metal that passed through.
5 October 20268 min read
Read the article →Investing
An asset that generates no income, costs money to store, and has no management team should by rights have been abandoned long ago. The reasons it has not are worth understanding properly.
8 October 20267 min read
Read the article →Buying well
The published rate is the easy part. What separates a fair purchase from an expensive one is everything added to it after the weight is agreed.
10 October 20268 min read
Read the article →History
Silver was money before coins existed. Mesopotamian merchants weighed out silver by the shekel four thousand years ago, and the metal has been at the centre of trade, empire and industry ever since.
12 June 20268 min read
Read the article →History
Silver has circulated in the Kathmandu Valley for well over a millennium — as coinage, as craft, as dowry, and as the trade that built the street DPPL stands on today.
20 June 20268 min read
Read the article →Buying well
The daily rate is only the starting point. Understanding the tola, the sale–purchase spread and making charges tells you what you will actually pay — and what you will actually receive when you sell.
2 July 20267 min read
Read the article →Buying well
A genuine bar of fine silver tells you what it is. Here is what to look for, what to insist on, and the simple checks that separate real metal from an expensive mistake.
8 July 20267 min read
Read the article →Investing
Gold gets the headlines, but silver has quietly become the practical metal for Nepali savers — and the reasons are more interesting than simply "it is cheaper".
15 July 20267 min read
Read the article →Owning silver
Buying is the easy part. Keeping silver in good condition, keeping the paperwork straight, and knowing how a buy-back works is what protects its value over the years.
22 July 20266 min read
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