This past week, a co-worker decided to revisit the gold dealer. I asked if I could tag along again as I had the first time. See my earlier post “A Field Trip to the Gold Dealer” https://apartmentprepper.wordpress.com/2010/09/02/a-field-trip-to-a-gold-dealer/ where I described my first impressions.
The first time we went, gold was going for $1244 an ounce, this second time, gold was at $1257 per ounce. This may be why he decided to sell some broken jewelry. My friend spoke with the gold dealer and they sat down to look at the pieces. I just sat back and watched, since it was all very fascinating. Most of the gold he brought were broken chains, earrings missing the other piece, a ring or two were missing their gems. Some pieces were discarded by older relatives, there was even a gold tooth in the pile! The gold dealer looked at each piece with a magnifying glass. He then rubbed the gold into this whetstone, then tested the marking with some kind of acid. In some cases, he poured the acid directly on the gold, presumably to see if the gold color would flake off. I even saw smoke wafting from the acid reaction to the gold, which made me wonder how safe was it to handle this acid without gloves. The dealer left the gold into a couple of piles, one pile was acceptable, another pile were those pieces that had a gem or two, and the last pile were the unacceptable ones. They did not accept gold-filled jewelry, or and other items that did not react properly. My friend was quite surprised as some of the rejected items had been in the family for years. The gold dealer said they get that reaction a lot.
Once they completed the examination, they weighed the gold and told my friend the total. I did notice one or two pieces that had stones like jade or pearl just got lumped in with the gold and did not get an additional valuation. I would think it would be a good idea to remove any gems ahead of time. I then walked away to give my friend some privacy in finishing up his transaction. He seemed pleased with the result, as he walked away with a few hundred dollars. He then went to the other counter to purchase some gold coins.
While he was looking doing his transaction, I walked over to the silver counter. When we last visited, silver was going for $18 an ounce, this time, it was going for $20. The dealer was selling the painted American Eagle silver coins for $21.50 each, while the all silver American Eagles were going for $22.75. I would have liked to take a photo, but camera’s and cell phones were not allowed in the store. Lots of other customers were buying the silver coins that day. One man proudly declared he was buying a silver coin for each of his grandchildren for their birthdays, and he made it a tradition to give a silver coin every year. I thought, “What a great idea!,” since the value would just keep increasing.
I am not yet in the position to be buying precious metals, as I continue to build up food and other emergency supplies. Once I am ready, I will start with junk silver, collect all the nickels I can, and this coming Christmas, will consider picking up some silver coins as gifts.
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