Gold Glitters

McALLEN - The past week was busy for Wendell Curry, who owns McAllen Gold and Silver Exchange on North 10th Street.

His principal commodity, the "barbaric metal," was selling for more than $1,000 an ounce, a record. It then backed off, dropping to $944, but Curry was still glittering.

One of the largest gold dealers in the Valley, Curry took in gold jewelry, bars and coins from at least 65 walk-in customers on Monday - one of his biggest days ever.

The day's biggest transaction - a stunningly gorgeous 99.33-ounce bar of pure gold brought into his shop by a McAllen resident - was worth close to $100,000.

"I love this metal," Curry said. "I have a romance with it. Look out over history. Look at how many wars were fought over gold bullion. Isn't that fascinating?"

"Housewives lined up today to sell us their jewelry," he said. "So they bring it in - we're buying an enormous amount."

His purchases included 26 Austrian coronas, 13 U.S. $50 Eagles (still minted by the U.S. Mint), 23 Chinese "pandas" and 10 Mexican gold coins.

The difference between what Curry pays and gets for gold is about 4 percent of his purchase price, though he makes more on some items.

McAllen resident Roel Gonzalez, a contractor, sold two small items of jewelry - a necklace and a ring - for $500.

Gonzalez checked with his girlfriend before accepting the offer. Curry then checked Gonzalez's driver's license as proof of identity and had him sign a document certifying that the items were his to sell.

Curry then paid Gonzalez in five $100 bills, which Gonzalez said he would use to pay bills.

"I'm helping the people," Curry said. "I'm helping them get top dollar for things they don't need."

At day's end, Curry's son Patrick and brother Sam pack the day's haul into little boxes, then into two nondescript attaché cases. They courier it to the U.S. Post Office on McColl Road in McAllen, where they get insurance and receipts and ship it by registered mail.

From there, it goes to Houston, then, Curry said, by air cargo to a gold refinery in northern New Jersey. There, an assay is done for gold received in the form of bars, jewelry or what dealers call scrap.

Most of the metal not already in highly pure bar form is converted by the refinery to tiny 24 karat pellets for manufacture by jewelers into new jewelry or for other purposes.

Gold has yielded a good life for Curry. He and his wife, Penny, a lawyer, live in a well appointed home on South Padre Island, to which he returns nightly.

"It's one of the spoils of this business," he said.

He does not work weekends, even with gold hitting historic highs.

"I am a devout, practicing Christian, and I will not be open on Sunday," he explained.

Curry, at one time a director of Lone Star National Bank and a longtime coin collector, has been in business at the same location since 1977.

His founding investor was Lloyd Bentsen Sr., a member of one of South Texas' most powerful families and the father of 1988 Democratic vice presidential candidate Lloyd Bentsen Jr.

"He was the financier and I was the operator," Curry said of the elder Bentsen.

Curry saw the metal hit $800 an ounce in the early 1980s, then fall off to $420 or so in the mid-1990s, then rise in the new century.

Even now, with the precious metal's surge to more than $1,000 an ounce, he does an even brisker business in Rolex watches, his shop's principal retail item.

Yet with the U.S. dollar crashing on overseas markets, confidence in the U.S. government ebbing and recession looming, gold's value should keep rising, Curry said.

"For everybody else, it's going to get a lot worse," he said. "But for me a lot better."