The Great Sell-Off

While some families poked around in dresser drawers and jewelry cases for gold cufflinks and earrings, others rummaged through attics and closets in search of long forgotten sterling silver tea sets, candlesticks, or perhaps just a stray silver ashtray. Gold and silver fever is spreading to ordinary folks, and many were lining up at coin and jewelry shops to seE their little treasures for quick cash.

With bulging pockets, shoeboxes, shopping bags and even pillow cases, a throng of students, housewives, executives and pensioners last week crowded into the waiting room of the Empire Diamond & Gold Buying Service on the 66th floor of the Empire State Building. Outside Jonathons Coin in Los Angeles, 250 people waited in line. Noted Vice President Richard Schwary: "With gold selling for about $600 an ounce, an old watchband is worth a lot. We have really got a panic here. The stampede is on. A decent sterling silver tableware set will go for $3,000 to $5,000. I gave my mother $3,000 for hers."

In Boston a couple of newlyweds sold off their incomplete sterling silver dinner service because they did not want to pay the high price to buy the missing pieces. In New York a schoolgirl sold her father's old gold bridgework to help pay her way through college; an elderly widow sold her gold jewelry piece by piece; and one woman recently traded in her gold I.U.D. In Los Angeles Dealer Schwary reported buying everything from a three-foot-high silver trophy awarded in a 1930s auto race to Vietnamese taels, ultrathin gold pieces the size of calling cards.

At New York's Empire Buying Service, Owner Jack Brod was importuned by one eager customer to extract his loose, gold-filled tooth on the pot. Brod refused; the man left, but returned a few days later with tooth in hand. Typically, New York Dealer Harry Rodman paid one Maryland dentist $500 for the gold scrap and dust that he had collected with a special vacuum from dental grindings in just two years of practice. Dealers also quietly bought gold fillings from morticians, proving that you can't take it with you.

Some disappointed sellers discovered that their "pure" gold bracelets were really cheap plate. Even if the pieces were in fact gold or silver, many sellers were unhappy to learn that they get considerably less than the much headlined prices of the metals. Sterling silver is only 92.5% pure, while 10-, 14-and 18-karat gold is respectively 42%, 58% and 75% pure. Also, dealers can take commissions of 10% or more on trades.

Yet, the pieces keep rolling in and, in the back rooms of trading shops around the country, shining heaps of gold and silver bracelets, school rings, wedding bands and chains wait to be sorted. Cardboard boxes over-flow with gold cigarette cases and compacts; walls of shelves are full of antique silver candlesticks and saltcellars: pails are awash in silver quarters and dimes. In one room in the Empire Trading Service, 30 coffee cans sit filled to the brim with gold teeth, crowns and inlays.

A very few especially valuable antiques will be saved and sold to dealers. All the rest, old and new, ugly and beautiful, will be melted down into ingots. Though much of what is now being sold is artistically valueless, some sellers miss out by taking only the cash value of the bullion. Says Anthony Phillips, silver specialist of Christie's, the large auction house: "An original spoon by Paul Revere might be worth $70 if it is sent to melt but $1,000 or more at auction." Asked about his feelings when he lowers heirlooms into his furnace, Harry Rodman notes: "It hurts for only a minute."

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