SAVING KEY DATES FROM THE 1980 SILVER MELT

You asked for recollections from those dealers who experienced the Hunt Bros. Silver rush. Here goes:

In 1980 I worked for Gary Young who had a coin store in Oakland, CA. As silver prices rose and the media started to cover the story, people began to come into the store to sell. This soon turned into a flood of customers lined up outside the store. It was just the two of us and we had to lock the door, letting only a few people in at a time. I don't think we sold many numismatic items at the time because our regular collectors didn't want to fight the crowd.

I was busy cutting up 1959 to 1964 Mint and Proof sets to send the silver coins to a refiner. Metal buckets of coins, jewelry etc. segregated by fineness were picked up regularly for shipment. I remember running a quantity of Quarters just purchased from a vest pocket dealer through a coin counter. For some reason I picked out a 1932 coin and turned it over, only to see an S mintmark. I told Gary this would take longer than usual as I wanted to look at all of the coins. I pulled out ten 1932-S coins. At this time no one was looking at dates, just take the scrap value and run!

Later that year Gary sold his long established store along with a good deal of the inventory to another dealer. To this day I don't know if this was just sheer luck or calculated market timing, but soon after his sale precious metals prices crashed and the value of numismatic coins tanked. The store was later closed. Gary bought a ranch in Northern California and basically retired from the coin business.

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
ARTICLE PROFILES SILVER BARON NELSON BUNKER HUNT (www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v17n44a19.html)

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