ATM In Front Of Midtown Rare Coin Store Offers 'Gold To Go'
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- If you love gold and silver, there just so happens to be an ATM in Midtown where you can get lots of it.
But as CBS 2's Cindy Hsu reported, you had better have a lot of cash in your wallet.
The ATM can be found outside Stack's Rare Coins, at 123 W. 57th St. between Sixth and Seventh avenues. The "Gold to Go" ATM has people stopping, staring, and snapping pictures.
"Only in New York – buying gold on the street," said tourist Mike Svobota, a tourist from Minnesota. "Only in New York."
"I just think it's kind of odd," added Allison Brown of Brooklyn. "I don't know why anyone would ever use it."
Vicken Yegparian of Stack's Bowers Galleries said there are, in fact, lots of reasons people would use it.
"Some people might be doing it for a gift, which has happened for hundreds of years -- to just people buying a little bit of gold -- socking some of their money away for that rainy day," Yegparian said.
There are seven different gold and silver bars and coins to choose from. The most expensive is the one-ounce gold eagle coin that goes for nearly $1,400. The least expensive, the silver eagle, goes for $28.
Yegparian showed CBS 2's Hsu how it works. He chose the 5-gram gold bar, which costs $259. A buyer must place an ID such as a driver's license or passport in the scanner, and then feed the cash – the machine does not take credit cards.
The machine then down drops the gold in a black gift box, along with the buyer's change. The buyer then just goes in and grabs the box.
"I think it's wonderful, you know?" said Shirley Martindale of Chicago. "I want Gold to Go, and gold to stay."
"I would buy one of the little ones to have in my house -- that would be cool," said Julia Lecato of Brooklyn.
But Marty Hendricks, 9, who was coming down the block with his brother, was not so sure about the idea.
"Gold is so valuable -- it's kind of awkward that it's there," Marty said.
The ATM is not in operation 24 hours. It is open six days a week, and keeps the same business hours as the coin store.
The prices of gold and silver in the machines change every minute, depending on the market. And while the owners of the ATM would not give CBS 2 hard numbers on how often the machine has been used, they said people have made purchases.
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