Nationalizing gold: The Vietnamese SJC gold bar and the Indian Gold Coin

Allison Truitt

Economic Anthropology, 2018, vol. 5, issue 2, 224-234

Abstract: The popularity of gold in India and Vietnam is attributed to either cultural values or an undeveloped financial sector. Yet gold also serves as an important reserve asset for central banks, more so than ever following the 2008 financial crisis. By way of exploring this juxtaposition, I turn to recent campaigns in each country to promote a national gold form, the SJC bar in Vietnam and the Indian Gold Coin. Although the campaigns have been framed in oppositional terms—the Vietnamese state has sought to demonetize gold, the Indian state to promote its monetization—I reconcile this contradiction by examining the particular histories of gold in each country and why gold served as a particularly potent symbol of economic liberalization. Gold, I argue, ultimately links citizens in the Global South with actors in the heart of the international monetary system; thus the promotion of these two national brands of gold shows state†led efforts to intervene in processes of value creation.

Date: 2018
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