Okay, so gold today has gone over $825.00 an ounce, the highest since January 1980.

Boy, does that bring back memories. In 1980 I was at the ANS doing some research work on their transportation token collection when then curator of Modern Coins, Richard Doty received a call from the firm of Deak-Perera, looking for a fellow with some coin knowledge interested in working the counter of their 5th Avenue location. As I was there at the time, Doty recommeneded me, and within a week I had an interview, was getting a polygraph test, and figured out a college class schedule that was Tuesday-Thursday classes, leaving three days at the "office".

The midtown office was a first floor location opposite St. Patrick's Cathedral which did Foreign Exchange. The second floor office, just off the escalators from the lobby, was situated near the entrance to the New York Passport office. That second floor office handled the "Numismatic" trade, and Bullion.

In January it was crowded. People three and four deep at the counter. We has a front counter for gold and collector coins, and a side counter for silver, with a coin counter. The staff would be given price updates throughout the day, and we would buy or sell gold, and pay out in check or cash, up to the reporting limit of 10,000.

February, March, gold settled back. The office got quiet. April saw a two week NYC Subway Strike and a very quiet office.

By June, I was gone. Unemployed. However, I was soon back at the ANS, as a part-time photographic department clerk thru the rest of my college years.

I meet some fun people in that 5th Avenue office. Some I still see in the NYC numismatic scene, some I've never seen again, and others have gone onto their great reward. Including Mr. Nicholas Deak, who was shot in his 29 Broadway office in 1985.

What will gold do this time? I do not know, but it has brought back some fun memories for me.

George