Its chemical symbol is Au. It melts at 1,064 degrees Centigrade. It’s nineteen times heavier than water.

Around 3,500 years ago, it became recognized as a standard medium of exchange for international trade. It’s the main ingredient in the Shekel, the Aureus, the Ducat, the Florin, the Crown, the Guinea, the Maple Leaf, the American Eagle, the Krugerrand, and the Philharmoniker.

During the Dark Ages and the Renaissance, alchemists tried to manufacture it, but failed.

In its raw form, the stuff was contraband in the United States for decades. It sparked wild-eyed enthusiasm in North Carolina, California, and Alaska.

Forty percent of all of it has come from South Africa.

It’s used in electronic devices and in giant mirrors for telescopes.

Its purity is measured in karats.

It’s gold, and in 1971, it cost $35 per ounce. Today, that same ounce will cost you well over $1,500.

Analysts indicate that the price of gold is largely determined by retail buyers and sellers. That means that locally owned small businesses are essential players in a world market.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, a consumer with one dollar in 1971 would need $5.67 in 2012 to purchase similar goods. That’s a cumulative inflation rate of 567 percent. During that same period, the price of gold has risen 4,500 percent. And while gold is down from its record high of around $1,900 per ounce a year ago, “historically speaking, the price of gold is still very, very high,” said Jack Seaman, the sole proprietor for Mindak Gold Buyers, located in a kiosk near the fountain at Moorhead Center Mall in Moorhead, Minn. “The same thing goes for silver, too,” he said, “but it’s not quite as impressive as gold.”

As a precious metals buyer, Seaman buys both gold and silver, he said, mostly jewelry and other items made from the metals, but also gold and silver coins. He’ll buy gold at any of the karat purities, he said, as well as Sterling silver.

“Mostly, its scrap jewelry,” Seaman said. “That’s the biggest portion of my business: people’s old, broken, unwanted items like Mom’s old class ring.

“Some of the oddball stuff that I see customers bring in is gold teeth,” he said, “and while they’re real gold, I hope they give me the courtesy of knocking out the teeth before they bring them in. Otherwise, I’m stuck with handling someone else’s old teeth.

“Some of the Sterling flatware pieces that I see are pretty interesting and old,” he said, “but for the most part, it’s just scrap jewelry, stuff that people don’t want to wear or don’t use or that they found.”

It’s fun to be able to give people cash for their gold and silver, Seaman said, but sometimes he has to turn people away. “I see a lot of silver plate flatware,” he said, “and silver-plated flatware isn’t worth anything, and so I turn away a lot of people who are hoping that their silverware is real silverware, but it’s not.

“And a lot of people have gold-plated jewelry,” he said, “and sometimes it’s really a bummer because they’re coming in thinking that it’s real—and they bought it as if it were real—but it’s not. I had one gentleman who had what would have been over $4,000 in 14-karat gold, but it was fake. He bought it in Texas and paid cash. That wasn’t good.”

The majority of his customers, Seaman said, are older folks who have acquired gold and silver over the years. “They realize that it’s just sitting in a drawer somewhere,” he said, “and it’s not doing them any good, and so they might as well turn it into some cash. Or maybe some family member died and left them a box full of stuff and they’re like, ‘What am I going to do with this? Let’s just get rid of it, you know?’”

Licensed by the city, county, and state, Mindak Gold Buyers opened for business May 1 and is unique in that “this is all that I do,” Seaman said. “I’m not a pawn shop or a coin-dealer or a gold-seller. All I do is buy precious metals. I’m very in tune with the market and with what competitors are paying, and so that’s my advantage. And there’s no waiting: I’ll get you in and out in five minutes because you don’t have to wait in line with somebody who is pawning their power tool or trading in a bicycle or having a bag of pennies looked at. I’m just boom! in-and-out-and-done.”

Seaman said he bought gold and silver for two years before he decided to make it his full-time job. “I gained some experience in the field,” he said, “and I thought I could just parlay that knowledge into my own business. Everyone wants to live the American dream,” he said, “and so here I am in the Moorhead Center Mall living the dream.”

Located in the heart of the mall, Seaman’s kiosk is in a good location, he said, but he admits that casual mall traffic doesn’t typically result in transactions. “It’s not like they’re walking along carrying their stuff,” he said. “But a lot of women with big purses, they walk by and they will be like, ‘Oh you buy gold? I’ve got some right here.’ and boom! they throw it down, and I’m like, ‘Wow! You just carry that around?’”

When someone does come to Mindak Gold Buyers with gold and silver items, Seaman said he’ll use a jeweler’s loupe, a simple magnification device that allows him to read markings, to examine the items. “If it’s good gold jewelry by a known maker, its stamped 10K, 14K, 18K, whatever,” he said. “It’s pretty simple and straightforward because everything that is real has a stamp. The Sterling flatware says Sterling, and the salt-and-pepper shakers and the candle holders all say Sterling.

“If there is no stamp,” he said, “and it was custom-made, I can do an acid test on it.” Seaman demonstrated how different acids can be used to determine the purity level of gold. “After I determine its karat, I weigh it, and then I pay a percentage of its melt value.” After he buys the items, he sells them to a refiner who melts them down into bullion, he said.

Will the seller’s market for gold continue into the near future? “Even though gold has come down during the last year, overall, decade-wide, we’re still very near the top,” Seaman said. “That’s why customers would want to get rid of it now. Five years from now or two years from now or a year from now, who knows where we’re going to be? Could it go higher? Yeah, it could, but historically speaking, we’re still very high, and so prices are good. If people want to turn it into cash, they should.”

Seaman said gold continues to capture a high price because of economic uncertainty. “There are a lot of crazy things going on in our economy here at home and abroad,” he said. “People value gold as a safe-haven. That’s why the price stays high.”

By Ryan C. Christiansen