Chapter 56

January 16, 1980

On Thanksgiving day the price of silver had been a respectable $16.19 and everyone in the business of investing was talking about the scarcity of silver. Your average person on the street was becoming aware that something quite unusual was happening in the silver market. The CBS, NBC, and ABC were now talking about the price of silver during the evening news.

On Christmas, the price of silver was $24.60. If Thanksgiving dinners had quiet conversations about the price of silver, then the tone of similar discussions around Christmas time had the volume of a riot. Everyone, even the most economically oblivious person, was talking about the price of silver. Young lovers wanting to get silver heart pendants for their sweethearts discovered they couldn’t afford them. The price of film for cameras went up because Kodak couldn’t buy enough silver.

It was about this time in their first pass that Tim and Benny had sold four quarters for $11 or so. Back then, $11 bought an awful lot of necessities for a couple of kids living in poverty. There was no other way to put it. They were living in poverty. It was funny, the kinds of details of what their lives had been like back then were slipping away from them. It was 45 years in the past and memory became fuzzy, particularly when the past five years had been spent reliving that same time period with completely different experiences.

The biggest difference between their original pass and this one was economic. Back in the first pass they were living in abject poverty. Benny was a student supporting himself. Tim was supporting Joyce who was spending every dime he made for drugs and booze. There were a lot of lean times.

Now, they had money, houses, and cars. In the first pass, they sold 4 quarters for their silver value. This pass, they didn’t even know how much they had invested in silver, but it was a lot. They expected to make more than a million dollars out of the deal. Robert was playing the silver futures market. Tim zoned out when he explained it to them. Benny was very pleased with what he heard.

Everyone who Tim had told to collect silver coins were wondering if now was the time to sell them. Up until now, it was fairly easy to locate a hundred silver quarters or silver half dollars. The half dollars were particularly easy to get since they weren’t circulated as much. A trip to the bank to get a ten dollar roll of half dollars could easily net eight silver coins. The half dollars were 40% silver even after 1964, so that was even easier to collect although it wasn’t worth as much. Silver dollars had been made of 40% silver until 1976, so nearly every dollar coin contained a significant amount of silver.

New Years Eve silver was selling at $32.20 an ounce. Four silver quarters had a melt value of $23.30. You could take a dollar in change to a metal dealer and come out with $23. “We Buy Gold and Silver” stores had popped up all over the place. People started separating out the silver coins in their change. Family silver tea sets and silverware were getting sold for their silver content. People were going through their jewelry boxes.

This year Tim decided that he was going to host a New Years Eve party. The core group of Tim, Benny, Cathy, Sandra, and Lily would be there. He also invited the tenants of the two houses rented to the university. Dr. Frank Hennequin, the historian, was pretty sociable, although his odd fixation with plumbing was a source of amusement for Tim. The other tenant, Dr. Kwan Gun, was very private and reserved. In fact, he barely engaged Tim in any conversation as if totally immune to Tim’s charm. Much to Tim’s surprise, both tenants accepted his invitation to celebrate the New Year.

It turned out that Dr. Kwan Gun was a mathematician. He and Benny spent the entire evening talking mathematics. Neither one noticed midnight or even morning, having talked through the night. Everyone else just kept their distance. Dr. Frank Hennequin brought over a bottle of champagne (authentic legal champagne from the French region of Champagne and prepared under the proper process) which was opened and consumed at midnight. He was rather shocked that no one else had even considered having a wine of any kind.

Tim, having looked up Bobby Joe Mills in the telephone directory, was standing in front of the man’s house at 11:00 on this cold Wednesday morning. It was 46 degrees with a brisk wind that made it feel even colder. He was bundled up in a his heavy coat and hat. He walked up to the front door and knocked.

Irritated at the noise Tim was making, Bobby Joe’s wife answered the door. Bobby Joe was resting since he was scheduled to work the late shift that evening.

“What?”

“I need to speak to Bobby Joe.”

“No. He’s sleeping,” she told Tim, not recognizing him in his coat and with his head covered by a stocking hat.

Tim smiled and said, “Mrs. Mills. You want to wake him. Silver is hitting $45 dollars an ounce today or tomorrow. You’ll want to wake him and take what ever silver you’ve collected to the ‘We buy gold and silver’ store. Four quarters should get you about $45. Now it is liable to go up a little more than that, but the price is going to plummet fast, after it hits its peak. It’s better to sell it off now, rather than wait.”

She recognized him now that he had mentioned the magic word, silver. She had been a busy little beaver over the past few months in collecting silver. Bobby Joe was a good solid man who did his job well, but it was a job that wasn’t exceptionally high paying. As a result, they were often a little short of cash. They did have a nice little nest egg, but that was for emergencies. She didn’t want to dip into the nest egg to speculate on silver, but she did want to speculate on silver. It was one of those impossible choices.

After worrying about it for a week, she came across a solution which she though was rather clever. She went through the change jar and pulled out all of the silver dimes and quarters she could find. She then went to the silver place and sold them. She didn’t make a killing, but she did increase the amount of money she had available to trade for rolls of silver coins. She made the discovery that there were far more fifty cent pieces and silver dollars (percentage-wise) in a roll from the bank. She acquired a bunch of coins at the legal tender price and then sold a few at the silver content price. She repeated that process a few times. She quickly grew her collection of coins into the pounds of silver range. To be exact, she had acquired around 25 pounds of silver since June in dimes, quarters, fifty cent pieces, and silver dollars. It actually weighed a lot more than 25 pounds since the silver dollars were only 40% silver. It was about $650 of legal tender and worth $16,800+ for its melt value at $45 an ounce.

Tim stood at the open front door while she ran further into the house shouting, “Wake up! Wake up, Bobby Joe! It’s time!”

Bobby Joe came out of the bedroom looking a little worse for wear. He hadn’t gotten enough sleep and stood staring blankly at his wife.

“It’s not 2:00!”

“Not for that. It’s time to head for the silver store!”

Bobby Joe finally noticed Tim standing at the open doorway. He recognized him immediately, although the silver reference might have served as a major mental nudge in that direction. Still, it took him a second or two to process what his wife was saying.

“What’s the price?”

“Forty-five an ounce,” his wife answered.

She had whole tables showing how much the collection of silver would earn her based on different market prices. She knew that the amount of silver she had would gross over $16,000, but that she’d have to pay 28% in taxes. She was looking at leaving that place with a check for $11,000. To put this in context, the median yearly income for a family in 1979 was $15,000. This payday was going to be almost like getting a whole year’s pay.

“Let me get dressed.”

While he was off getting dressed, she was busy dragging out the boxes of coins she had stashed away. It was only after the second trip that she realized that Tim was still standing at the door. Feeling sheepish, she went to the door.

“Sorry. I got a little excited.”

“No problem. Everyone is reacting about the same way. Benny had one thing he wanted me to convey.”

“What’s that?”

“Don’t go crazy spending the money. Invest most of it. Put some in a saving account. Buy yourself one nice thing, but don’t go overboard with something like a car,” Tim said.

“Are you kidding? It’s all going into the savings account.”

Tim said, “No. Invest most of it, put some in a savings account, and buy something nice.”

“Why not save it all?”

“You won’t get much return in a savings account, but having some money in the savings account will give you a rainy day fund. Buying yourself something nice lets you feel good about yourself. I call it satisfying the reward need. A hundred dollar painting or a new sofa can do that.”

“I see,” she said looking at Tim. “You’re pretty smart.”

“Thank you, but I’m just average.”

“Yeah, right.”

“I’ve got to go. I’ve got more people to tell and not much time to do it,” Tim said giving a quick wave and turning to walk away.

Standing at the open door in the cold, she watched him leave. She wondered why this guy had taken so much interest in them. It actually wasn’t in them, but in her husband. She closed the door while looking down towards the bedroom where her husband was getting dressed. She had to wonder what he did for that guy and his friend. She still had one of his cards tucked away. Maybe she would ask him straight out. In the mean time, it was time to go get a whole lot of money!

After stopping by his parent’s house to let his mother know that it was time to sell some silver, Tim headed back to his house. It was nearing noon and he expected Sandra and Cathy to be home from school. He’d tell them to get their coins together and come with him to the place that would buy it. He pulled onto the street in time to spot them walking home from the college. Rain, snow, hot, or cold they walked to college every day. It was only a little further than the walk from the parking lot to the buildings where their classes were held.

Tim stopped the car next them and rolled down the window. He waved to them. They detoured to stand by the open window.

“Today is the day to sell the silver. I’m going to load up mine and I’ll come by to pick you up.”

“How much is it?”

“It’s hit $45.00 an ounce.”

“We’ll get our box of silver,” Sandra said.

Tim drove on and pulled into Benny’s driveway. He went in and opened the closet where their box of silver coins was stored. He knelt down and realized there were two boxes. He went to pick up one box and found it didn’t come up. He opened the lid and looked inside. It was filled to the top with rolls of quarters. He slid the other box out of the closet and examined the contents. There were 26 rolls of quarters. He couldn’t believe they had accumulated that many. Then realized that he and Benny together had been collecting silver coins for five years. That was five rolls of quarters a year, which in thinking about it wasn’t that many particularly considering how many coins they handled while painting numbers on curbs.

There were two rolls of fifty cent pieces. There were also 8 rolls of dimes. There was also some loose change which he didn’t bother to count. He did notice there among the loose coins were a few dollar coins. One of the dollar coins looked pretty old so he pulled that one out and set it aside.

He carried the box out to his car. It only weighed 14 pounds. He put it in the back of the Jeep. He was still arranging it in the back when Benny drove up and behind him.

“Put them in my car. The four of us can ride in it a lot more comfortably than in your Jeep or one of the Datsuns.”

“I only got one of the boxes out. It’s heavy.”

“I’ll get the other box.”

The box Benny carried out was bigger than the first box. It was also a lot heavier. It weighed 25 pounds. Tim was shocked when he took the box from Benny to put it in the trunk of the car. He nearly dropped it into the trunk.