Michael, gold refiner, by a barred window

The 47th Street Interviews · No. 05 · Gold refiner

Michael: When Gold Was $65 an Ounce

56years on 47th Street

Fifty-six years on 47th Street, from learning to set diamonds to buying, melting and refining gold, and January 1980, when the stores melted their inventory.

Interview and photographs by Yan Do Amaral · TraxNYC Magazine

How long have you been working on 47th Street, and how did you start?

MichaelRight now it's Preferred Precious Metals. But when I started, I was working for a guy. First of all, I started as a diamond setter. They were teaching me to become a diamond setter.

Then somebody gave my boss an idea: to start buying gold. Gold in those days was, I would say, $65, $70. He had customers, and he had leftovers from dealing in jewelry and everything. He was melting it and selling it to one of the people he dealt with, and he wasn't happy with the price. So: why don't you buy, accumulate, melt and send it to a refiner? That was 1972, 1973.

At that time it was a company called Handy & Harman. They had an office on 47th Street, between Fifth Avenue and Madison. You melt, you take a sample, you deliver, and they give you a receipt. When they finish refining, they send you the information, and a check with it. Gold was cheap.

The melting process was a little different too. Not like an induction furnace, all electric. It was a gas furnace with a blower. Those days it was okay, but if you talk about now and see how it was before, it's the old-fashioned way to melt.

Gold in those days was, I would say, $65, $70.Michael, Preferred Precious Metals

Michael beside his melting furnaces under silver exhaust ducts — A long way from gas blowers: Michael beside his furnaces today.

The Power-Trak furnace starter cabinet with high-voltage warning signs — The furnace starter. It looks like a safe; it runs the furnaces.

Inside the furnace starter cabinet: cables, hoses and gauges — Inside the furnace starter.

As a gold refiner, how has your job changed over the years, as the price of gold kept climbing?

MichaelPeople were buying, but they had no idea how to refine. I was refining.

When I came in, in 1970, there were three buyers. Little by little, people came, very little. Not like here, where everybody's buying gold. Those days, people didn't buy gold like that. There were special buyers: they were buying and sending to refine, and some people refined it themselves.

I quit and went on my own in April 1977. I already had some people who dealt with me. They were selling, and it was normal, nice, beautiful. Nothing crazy. Without any stories: buying, melting, sending to the refiners. Just like this.

And then gold started going up and up, at the end of 1979. In January 1980, gold was already $850. You know what happened then? The jewelry stores closed. They took all their inventory and melted it, because they had inventory that cost them $35 an ounce. So they melted everything. It was a lot of gold. I was buying a lot of gold. You should see the lines. The people were lining up.

That was a long time. That gold rush created a lot of gold buyers: a lot of people went into gold buying.

You should see the lines. The people were lining up.Michael, 56 years on 47th Street

What mistake should someone avoid when starting a business like yours?

MichaelThis business? I don't know about now. It's all crazy now. It's new people. Those people were different from today's people.

They made money. I don't think they made a mistake. Of course, they had to know what they were doing. They were pretty good.

Those days were good. Beautiful. People are different.

Lightly edited for length and clarity.

Before you buy

The chains in this story, and the guides from the store

Cuban link chains Rope chains Franco chains Curb chains Custom chains Gold chains for men Today's gold price per gram

How Much Does a Gold Chain Weigh? Real Grams by WidthGuide from the store Men's Gold Chain Length Guide: 18, 20, 22 or 24 Inches?Guide from the store 10K vs 14K vs 18K gold chains: purity, stamps, weight and which to buyGuide from the store How a gold chain is priced at TraxNYC, and why the price moved since last week or a videoGuide from the store Miami Cuban chains: width and weightGuide from the store How to tell if gold is real: the stamp, the scale, the magnet, and is TraxNYC real gold?Guide from the store Chain width chart: millimeters to inchesEvery width, how it looks on a neck, what it weighs

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