Jump to full article: Times Of London (uk), 2009-05-25
Author: Adam Sage in Paris
Intro: French women have found a way of drawing a line under an unwanted husband. They are selling their wedding rings to be melted down and turned into dentures and using the money to buy cigarettes and wine, or sweets for their children.
The practice has caught on as some of France's 29,000 tobacconists try to supplement their falling incomes with an offer to buy gold on behalf of a company that turns it into dental and medical products, including pacemakers.
The economic crisis, the rising price of gold and family breakdowns have combined to give impetus to what was initially a marginal activity. . . .
A total of 1,500 cigarette sellers have joined the scheme and a further 500 are expected to follow this year.
Among them is Jean-Luc Renaud, the general secretary of the French Federation of Tobacconists, who has a shop in Agen, southwest France.
Mr Renaud said that he needed “new ways of making money” because the number of cigarettes sold in France last year was 53.6 billion — down from 97.1 billion in 1991.
Gold was a solution.
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