Welcome to this week's Market wrap podcast, I'm Mike Gleason.
Coming up, we have a special interview with Helen Viljoen, founder and CEO of Nebu bullion jewelry. Nebu is the company behind the gold and platinum jewelry available at MoneyMetals.com that is actually worth what you pay – unlike most other jewelry sold in the United States.
Nebu jewelry is a "wearable investment" that provides both aesthetic beauty and timeless value. Helen has some fascinating things to say about the cultural differences in how gold is viewed in the East versus the West... with the East seeing gold as a trusted store of value rather than merely a luxury item.
With Valentine's Day less than two weeks away, we thought it was a perfect time to have Helen join us on the Money Metals podcast, so stick around for that coming up after this week’s market update.
Well, gold just broke out to a new all-time high yesterday, zooming $40 higher for the week now through this Friday morning recording to trade at $2,822 per ounce.
At the same time, silver continues to march upwards, rising nearly 90 cents here on the week to trade at $31.65 per ounce. Gold’s gain on the week is 1.4%, while silver comes in at twice that, seeing a 2.8% increase.
The high drama in the institutional markets for gold and silver – unfolding mostly in the background over the past 45 days – may finally be bleeding out into the mainstream.
Specifically, President Donald Trump's threat to impose import tariffs has led to a mad scramble at the institutional level to transport gold and silver bullion into the United States from all over the world before any potential tariffs are put into place.
A short squeeze could be unfolding at the COMEX. Some traders continue to have difficulty sourcing metal – and are therefore closing out their hedges to avoid getting caught on the wrong side of the trade.
On Wednesday, an analyst at TD Commodities warned the market is especially underestimating the possibility of a big move in silver, writing "explosive upside convexity in silver markets remains severely underpriced, particularly with few days remaining until the proposed deadline for tariffs for Canada & Mexico."
And then just last night, Trump reiterated his tariff threats, stating that Canada and Mexico will face 25% tariffs on as-yet-undetermined goods – with plans to put them into effect this very weekend. U.S. stock markets haven't seemed to mind the news at all, though, with major indexes trading higher on Friday, along with many commodities and gold.
Meanwhile, Trump has been pounding the table for lower rates and loudly blamed the Federal Reserve on Wednesday for causing all the inflation America has seen in recent years – faulting central bankers for their preoccupation with rolling out discriminatory DEI programs, gender ideology, green energy, and global warming.
Trump's harsh criticisms came on the heels of the Fed's decision on Wednesday to pause on further interest rate cuts, at least for now.
To be sure, market and political news has been coming out fast and furious through the month of January... all the more reason to stay tuned in to all the market analysis, commentary, and podcasts available at MoneyMetals.com.
You can count on us to keep you informed as these fast-moving events continue to unfold – especially those events that impact gold and silver... and your finances in general.
Speaking of gold and silver, be sure to check out the great deals we have at MoneyMetals.com – especially those posted on our specials page. Premiums on coins, bars, and rounds are at the lowest levels seen in at least 5 years.
And remember, Money Metals is also your best source whenever you wish to SELL your precious metals... and we're also the industry leader in retirement accounts, precious metals storage, loans, and sound money advocacy.
Well now, without further delay, here’s this week’s exclusive interview.

Mike Maharrey: Greetings! I'm Mike Maharrey, an analyst and reporter here at Money Metals, and I'm delighted to be here today with Helen Viljoen. She's the founder and CEO of Nebu Gold, a company that sells gold and silver, described as a “wearable investment.” How are you doing today, Helen?
Helen Viljoen: Fantastic. Mike, thank you so much for having me on your podcast.
Mike Maharrey: This is like the miracles of modern technology. I'm talking to you in South Africa, which is pretty cool. So you run a company and I think when I say wearable investment, I have a feeling that a lot of folks in my audience are like, what is he talking about? So can you just kind of first off explain basically what is investment jewelry? How can an American wrap their head around that idea?
Helen Viljoen: That's a really great question Mike, and I think it's a really novel concept, particularly in the West. And to take it perhaps back to our origin story, I founded Nebu a couple of years ago after some business trips to the east where I think that the gold market in the east is very different to that in the west in that you have an incredible consumption of jewelry, but particularly high character jewelry. So, if you really had to look at grassroots due to the fact that those cultures have been historically persecuted and don't really trust their governments and it is such a cultural thing, I think even in some religious text it almost fiat is not money. And so you couple that concept with the fact that they would never know whether the gold on them. I mean it obviously plays a big role in Dory and wedding gifts and that type of thing. But basically I think to sum it up, investment jewelry is like your traditional bullion investment, but you can actually wear it. So the whole foundation that we've built Nebu on is to have a transparent product that has, so it tracks the gold price, it's sold by weight with a percentage above spot that covers the maker's fee or our manufacturing fee.
Helen Viljoen: And I think that's really, really something different. And what we really try to do is offer the gold investor -- so firstly the gold investor or precious metals investor -- something that they didn't have to put in their vault, hat they could wear and enjoy. And it's still appreciated over time like any other gold investment. And I think to start educating the market that is buying jewelry, traditional fine jewelry, sort of precious stones, that type of thing where the concept and the actual intrinsic value of that piece is literally an inverted version of what we do. So to break that down for you, if you were to buy an engagement ring or any type of fine piece you're looking at retaining about 10 to 20% of your purchase price, 80% of that basically goes into the brand marketing efforts and subjective value, you'll never recover that. Whereas in our pieces, you retain about 80% at purchasing point 80% of that purchasing price and thereafter, I mean we know how much gold grows year on year.
You can actually value and calculate how long it's going to take for you to effectively for that to break even if you want to call it that, and then grow from there. So that's the one aspect. I think the other aspect is that other than objective valuation and having something that's intrinsically valuable, the transparency of that is really important for us with our customers. They know when they get their piece, if this pendant weighs five grams, they know that's going to be valued the same anywhere in the world and they don't need anyone to negotiate with or tell them otherwise. And I think that was something that we really, I mean it's an ongoing endeavor, but I think we've had so many customers that come to us, they've inherited jewelry from their grandmother and this is incredible diamond ring and they want to exchange it or maybe do something special with it. And they're always shocked when the insurance says, oh, it's worth $40,000 or whatever it might be. And that's not what it's going to be purchased at or how they can resell it. So, that's sort of the background behind investment jewelry is to create a product that for the educated precious metals investor, something that they can, if you're buying a gift for somebody exactly, it's financially astute. You have the additional utility of wearability and for your jewelry purchaser, something that actually retains the massive price tag that you usually pay for fine jewelry.
Mike Maharrey: Yeah, absolutely. And I've actually had that experience with family jewelry and you think, oh, I've got this gold and it's gold, and then you go, and like you said, you get it appraised and it's a third or less than what you imagined it would be. My grandmother, the most valuable piece of jewelry that she actually had, she had a half ounce cougar on that she had had mounted. That was the most valuable piece because it was literally a gold bull coin. Can you kind of explain maybe a little bit more of precisely what the difference is between the type of jewelry that you would sell and what you might buy if you just walked into a regular jewelry store here in the United States? What's the difference in the gold?
Helen Viljoen: A hundred percent. Yeah, that's a great question. I was actually going to bring that up. So, if you look at your traditional fine jewelry in the states, it depends on the region, but I think in the states, your carrot or So I think people firstly get confused between carrot with a C and carrot with a K. Carrot with a C is the size of a stone. Carrot with a K is its purity. And I think in the states you are familiar with 10 carat and 18 carat and maybe 14 Kara.
Mike Maharrey: Yeah, I would say 14 is probably the most common for if you bought a bracelet or a necklace or something like that.
Helen Viljoen: Okay. So I think a question that we regularly get from our customers is what is 24 carat? So, we sell 24 carat gold and platinum and then we have 22 karat chain. So you'd be surprised at how few, I mean especially your gold investor, all your gold is pure. I mean Kruger ran will contain a one ounce of gold or Troy ounce, but it's still a 22 carat piece. So that's still considered investment carat or grade like our chains. But the difference between our product and a 14 carat is 14 carat means that that is 14 parts in the 24 parts of gold that is actually pure. So I mean that's what, that's like 58% gold. So the balance would be pretty worthless metals depending on the alloy, nickel, silver, that type of thing. Whereas our jewelry is, especially on the 24 karat side, so we actually by definition 24 karat only needs to be three nine. So 99.9%, our gold jewelry is four nine, so 99.99% and obviously the 22 kara would be 22 parts in the 24, so I think it's like 91.7%. So your gold content or your precious metal, the actual valuable part of that piece is really saturated if you want to say that.
Mike Maharrey: Right. That's a good way to put it. What about folks who might think, well gold sometimes is a softer metal and that's why they put the alloys in. Do I need to worry about my jewelry that I'm wearing? That's my investment getting damaged.
Helen Viljoen: So, I think it's not false to say that 24 karat is soft, but I think your mainstream fine jewelers will tell their customers that it or make as if that it is a lot softer than what it actually is. Right, experimental. Exactly. So I mean all our designs, you have to be very careful with how you design the piece. I would not encourage anyone depending on the setting, I would not encourage to have fine claw settings to hold a stone in 24 karat, but it's really not as malleable as you think. And we've obviously with our product, we've had to, when we've designed the specific pieces, we stress test the design and has, the only thing that one has to be careful with is I wouldn't suggest if you put in your 14 karat or your 10 carat ring in a jumble bag with the rest of your jewelry, it won't scratch very easily. But I mean I have platinum alloy jewelry and it's still scratches. That's just the nature of the beast. But yeah, your 24 karat jewelry you do need to take care of. And I think the qualities of 24 karat gold and platinum is that it is malleable, so it will malate to form your body as you wear it.
Helen Viljoen: But I think that is sort of set off by the upside of a 20 other than the fact that you have a saturated piece of gold. I mean you basically carrying a gold nugget with you that gold is noble in its pure form, it's a noble medal. So whereas you have a 10 or 14 karat ring, you're probably going to have to plate that again. It's going to tarnish in 10, 15 years time. Whereas your great-great, great grandchildren, if you pass that pendant or whatever piece down, it'll look exactly the same as when it was bought.
Mike Maharrey: I think it's beautiful too that I've seen some of this joint, it looks different, 24 carat gold looks different than 14 karats. I don't know. I guess the best word I could come up with is it's deeper and richer in the color, so you get that trade off as well. You're getting something that's really aesthetically pleasing.
Helen Viljoen: Yeah, I mean we obviously work with, I mean we just work with it all day, so you get quite desensitized to it, but when you see it next to a low karat alloy, nine karat, 10 karat, 14 karat, it really looks washed out. You can really, you're to put them side by side, you're quite right. Gold in its pure form has a really, that term gold fever. It really has a lustrous enigma to it.
Mike Maharrey: And I think that gets to the root of why people have valued gold for thousands and thousands of years. It does have that intrinsic beauty about it. There's just something that you look at it and you think this is a valuable thing. It's almost like it's wired into our brains or something to appreciate it. Oh yeah. Who does your designs, because I've looked through some of the stuff on the website, it's absolutely gorgeous. So, how do you come up with your design and what's your philosophy in terms of the aesthetic side of it?
Helen Viljoen: So, when I founded the company, I was heavily involved in the design. I have a team that will sort of do regular launches throughout the year with new product. I think our ethos behind design, because our focus is on transparency, having an intrinsically valuable product, all the cornerstones on which we have built the company, our focus is less on artisanal or artistic, I guess setting ourselves apart or trying to break the be at the vanguard of way out designs and where you would think that would be the case in any kind of luxury item. And we take a lot of our inspiration from what customers actually request. So we'll do market research because ultimately the customer is the hero here, not the designer.
Mike Maharrey: Yeah, absolutely. So what's your background? I'm curious of what made you interested in gold and one day say, ‘You know what, I'm going to create a company where I can sell investment jewelry to folks.’ How did that come about?
Helen Viljoen: Well, actually, so by qualification or by profession, I have a degree in genetics and a degree in law. So, I really jumped, I definitely wasn't trained in gold, but I think I've always found current affairs and economics fascinating. And I think that goes hand in hand with gold. I think depending on your school of economics, it's sort of the foundation of that. And like I said, when I founded the company was after a couple of business trips to the east, and I just found this really fascinating how culturally educated your average man on the street. I mean you don't have to have a lot of money or be a high socioeconomic class to understand the value of gold. And I thought that was really something inspirational and the way that it's empowered those people to have just constant savings and how they, I mean, that's an incredible way to save and store or preserve your wealth. And that's really how I got interested in it. I mean, I was always a gold investor coming from South Africa, one of the, I mean everybody knows the Krugerrand is, that's a top bullion coin. So yeah, I think as a South African you buy it's in your blood. South Africa still has some of the most unmined gold in the world. That is basically the foundation upon which South Africa was built, and that's really what got my interest sparked.
Mike Maharrey: Yeah, yeah, that's interesting. You've touched on this a little bit and I actually put on my list of questions, I kind of wanted to delve into it a little bit that almost this fundamental cultural difference in the way that people in the West and people in the east think about gold. I know for most Americans is pretty utilitarian. I mean, we recognize gold as a beautiful thing. We like gold jewelry, but we would never think of it as an investment or not never, but rarely. And can you kind of, I don't know, maybe help people to understand how is the mindset about gold different in Africa or in Asia than it is in the West?
Helen Viljoen: So, I think to say that gold is, if you wanted to really take a Puritan definition, is gold an investment? If you look at traditional investments like shares and that type of thing that's supposed to yield a dividend or interest -- probably not. I would say that gold is a better store of value, a hedge against inflation and the time tested, I guess store of value. I mean it's a 6,000 year old technology that just has weathered all storms.
And I think the east cultures in the East understand that. I think when you have, what are the things that really contribute to gold holding its value or growing in value? And I think what people don't understand is that gold doesn't necessarily grow in value. It's everything else depreciates or loses its value in comparison. So I mean cultures in the East really understand that. I think that's why gold forms such a big part of doweries is traditionally they want to set up that young couple with a great savings base for their life going forward. And I think if you look at things that contribute to gold growing, it would be economic instability, geopolitical tension, which I think historically has been pretty prevalent in the east in various, I mean I'm not singling out one country, but they almost expect their governments to not look out for their interests. I think in the West, given that the west has been dominated by the dollar and just an incredible industrial complex, at least historically that was the quote gold standard. They trusted their fiat currency and there was no reason to not trust it. I think this is now going way back when the dollar was actually backed by a gold standard.
Helen Viljoen: I think that sort of culture that education has perpetuated to our current day where it's not quite the case yet. We still believe in governments in fiat currency
Mike Maharrey: And probably not wise given the way that it's abused. It's interesting because I remember reading somewhere that one of the differences, like folks in India here in the United States, and I've run across this doing some legislative work. If you go to a legislature and try to get say sales taxes or capital gains taxes removed from gold and silver bullion and you try to make the case that gold is money, you'll get a lot of pushback and they'll just say, oh no, no, gold is a luxury item. It's just for the rich. And you read about folks in India and virtually everybody that lives out in the rural areas that by western standards are extremely poor. They all have gold because they recognize that store of value. I don't think they have any faith that the rupee is going to be this kind of store of value that they need. They understand this. And that's I think, a significant difference. And that's why you see folks in this country's literally their jewelry, it's beautiful, it's part of their cultural, but it's also their wealth and their savings. So I think it's a totally different worldview.
Helen Viljoen: Oh, a hundred percent. I think to add to that, talking about India and being a female founder of this company, a story that I found incredibly inspiring was so a couple of decades back, Indian women, they could not financially emancipate from their husbands, so they weren't allowed to have a bank account in their name and basically their husband controlled all the money, but they had gold. And what they would do is basically pull in these villages, they would pull the gold together in South Africa, you call it a stock file, which is I guess sort of a form of a unit trust. And these groups would pull their gold together and then collateralize that and they would develop these communities. And that's just a really good story for how gold has been sort of creatively used there and its actual value has built out infrastructure and uplifted people.
Mike Maharrey: Yeah, it's very empowering and again, it's something that if you have gold, it doesn't matter where in the world you go, people will recognize it as having value. Whereas if I go to another country with a different currency, they may or may not, I mean dollars, obviously people like dollars. But again, we've already kind of touched on the fact people probably should be wary of that. I'll get you out on this. I'm curious to just more about your big picture view of the world, I guess when it comes to gold, one of the things you have a blog, and on the blog it has a list of things that folks should watch in 2025 in terms of the precious metals markets. And one of the first things that's listed is central bank gold buying. And I'm curious as to your perspective as somebody who lives outside of the United States who's not an American, how real do you think this impulse of de dollarization is where people are kind of wary of both the fiscal issues that we have in the United States with borrowing and spending along with the fact that the dollar has been used as a foreign policy tool?
I talk about this a lot. I think a lot of people in America are kind of like, oh no, that's not true. What's your perspective of a non-American of the dollar,
Helen Viljoen: I think the US dollar has a fascinating history. I think the United States has a fascinating history and the role that it has played on a global level geopolitically. I think obviously being a South African citizen and South Africa being a member of BRICS, I think, let me take it a step back on a principal level, I don't think it is ever good. Monopolies aren't good.
Helen Viljoen: So, I think working from that axiom, I don't think that it's good that the US dollar has, as you say, used as a tool and it wields a lot of power. There are arguments for it and there are arguments against it. I think dollarization, it's always good. I think it's good to have challenge and competition because it either sharpens the policies around the dollar and which is important. I think your test to be constantly evolving. I think the dollarization goes back quite a way and obviously one of the biggest areas that it plays a role in is oil. And when you have powers like Russia, the Middle East where dollar or where oil is their tool, I think it's important to be cognizant of the fact that these countries still have a lot of natural resources and what they can do with that. I personally don't know or don't think that de-dollarization will ever catch fire just purely because of momentum of the US dollar, but I do think that the dollar has to continuously, not necessarily reinvent itself, but it has to remain relevant and remember why it got its power in the first place.
Mike Maharrey: Yeah, that's a really good point. I really like the way you put it in terms of monopolization. That's something that I talk about often here in the United States just in terms of, I think it's a net harm that we have a central bank that effectively has monopolized money. And I think even within the context of a more closed economy, I think currency competition is a good thing. Let gold and silver and or platinum or crypto or whatever it is, compete openly with the dollar. But we have a central bank and a government that really effectively gives the fiat currency a monopoly. And that's yet another reason for folks to want to invest in gold because we know just by their nature, governments are devaluing their currency because it empowers the government.
Helen Viljoen: Yeah, I mean imagine if you had your own printing press for gold. I mean that kind of power is I think very dangerous. And I think just on that point, it's quite shocking to me sometimes how few people actually understand the true definition of what inflation is. I mean, you talk to any man on the street and inflation is just the cost of living, just they can't understand why the cost of living is just going up and groceries at the store, just that's just what happens.
Mike Maharrey: They think its just voodoo.
Helen Viljoen: Yeah, exactly. And they don't understand that inflation is the increased supply of currency into the market. And I think all of these things tie into one another. And I think gold always sort of acted as the sentinel at the gate. It sort of kept everyone in check, but once we decouple the dollar from the gold standard that just ran away. It just got a life of its own
Mike Maharrey: Absolutely brilliant points. So let folks know where they can find your website and start buying. I mean, we're what, two weeks from Valentine's Day? So this is a great time to buy jewelry and I think folks might want to consider getting their significant other. And there are pieces both for men and women, they might want to consider getting their significant other a beautiful piece of jewelry that is also an investment. So where can they find that?
Helen Viljoen: They can find Nebu at www.NebuGold.com, spelled NEBU gold.com. And you're quite right, Michael. We offer, I think what's something that's also that I failed to mention earlier, the difference between our bull jewelry or investment jewelry versus a traditional piece is there's a broad spectrum of designs to choose from that appeal to you as well as weights. You can get a piece that weighs one of our best sellers is the water droplet earrings, and they I think are 3.6 grams, or the pendant is 3.6 grams. The earrings are 5.6 up to a bangle that weighs 40 grams. So you really have variation there and obviously the associated price point.
Mike Maharrey: Yeah. Well I hope people will check that out. I really appreciate talking to you and your insights. It's really been interesting for me and a nice change of pace of talking about boring coins and bars. So I've really enjoyed it and it is nice to get a different perspective. So I really appreciate you taking the time.
Helen Viljoen: Thank you so much, Michael. It's been fantastic.
Mike Maharrey: Thank you.
Well, I hope you enjoyed that conversation. Having met Helen here at our new facility several months back when she made a recent trip to the States, she is a delightful person and it’s been a great partnership for us here on Money Metals. If you’re in the market for any wearable bullion jewelry, you won’t be disappointed if you choose one of the Nebu items we sell here at MoneyMetals.com.
Well, that will do it for this week. Be sure to check back next Friday for our next Weekly Market Wrap Podcast. And catch our midweek podcast as well, hosted by Mike Maharrey and appropriately dubbed the Money Metals Midweek Memo. To find any of our audio programs just go to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, other popular podcast platforms, or simply by going to MoneyMetals.com/podcasts.
Until next time, this has been Mike Gleason with Money Metals Exchange, thanks for listening and have a wonderful weekend everybody.

About the Author
Mike Gleason is a Director with Money Metals Exchange, a precious metals dealer recently named "Best in the USA" by an independent global ratings group. Gleason is a hard money advocate and a strong proponent of personal liberty, limited government and the Austrian School of Economics. A graduate of the University of Florida, Gleason has extensive experience in management, sales and logistics as well as precious metals investing. He also puts his longtime broadcasting background to good use, hosting a weekly precious metals podcast since 2011, a program listened to by tens of thousands each week.