I recall gold and silver in 1980 quite well. I knew exactly one person that was buying gold. One. Contract employee so he made a lot of money, drove a Jag. Silver was a different story. As the price went up and up, more and more silver came out of the closet. Tons of antiques were melted down. There was a small store at the local mall (very popular mall) that was buying silver. You would always see a line out the door of people selling Grandma's silver tea service and tableware. The store was there maybe 6 months to a year, then the price fell and people forgot about it. 12/8/17
BTW, found out much later that my MIL had told my wife to buy gold for her at the peak. My wife said "It's a bubble and it will crash" but Mom was insistent. Of course after the crash Mom still blamed my wife anyway for buying gold. 12/8/17
I knew exactly one person that was buying gold. One. Contract employee so he made a lot of money, drove a Jag.
Silver was a different story. As the price went up and up, more and more silver came out of the closet. Tons of antiques were melted down. There was a small store at the local mall (very popular mall) that was buying silver. You would always see a line out the door of people selling Grandma's silver tea service and tableware. The store was there maybe 6 months to a year, then the price fell and people forgot about it. 12/8/17