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There’s A Gold-Dispensing ATM on West 57th Street


A few days ago, I was scouting for office space around West 57th Street when I happened to walk by Stack’s Rare Coins shop…

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…and noticed what looked sort of like an ATM out front.

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Curious, I looked a little closer and realized this wasn’t any ordinary ATM…

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This ATM dispenses gold.

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Gold or silver, to be exact. Run by Stack’s Bowers Galleries, the collectible coin retailer/auctioneer, the ATM (currency exchange vending machine?) allows you to insert your debit card and buy gold bars in 1 oz ($1,327), 10g ($490), or 5g ($255) on the spot, along with several gold and silver coins. Prices are updated every 60 seconds based on the market.

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You can see the actual gold bars displayed in a little window below the screen, each about the size of a memory card.

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And while I like the idea of spending $1,327 only to have a little gold trinket drop unceremoniously out of the machine, possibly to accidentally bounce into a nearby sewer grate, have no fear – you also get an attractive gift box.

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It certainly is an original idea, but does anyone actually use this? A part of me wanted to buy a small gold bar just to do the classic cowboy movie bite test, but I don’t think the standard Citibank ATM would allow me to re-deposit it.

-SCOUT


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19 Comments

  1. These contraptions first appeared in the United Arab Emirates, which is an excellent candidate for the title of Least Surprising Fact of the Month.

  2. What if someone files a chargeback on their card?

    Does the ATM also accept Bitcoin?

    1. Why in the world would a legitimate jeweler/precious metal dealer want to accept Bitcoin?

      1. There’s two bitcoin ATMs in Manhattan as well. However the exchange rate is atrocious.

  3. I think this is really cool, and the idea shouldn’t be taken lightly. He said “on the spot,” so I assume he meant “at this moment” as opposed to the “spot” price of gold or silver. I’m assuming the ATM owner is charging some fee over spot price. That would be cool if it took BTC or cash. If I could put worthless paper into a machine and get real money in exchange, I’d do it with every federal reserve note I had.

    1. And then… Starve to death?

      I’m not sure grocery stores take anything other than worthless government fiat scrip, aka the current basis for international finance.

      1. A handful of restaurants take bitcoin, and you can use it on gyft.com, if you want to just maintain a minimum balance on your bank account. I’m not saying it’s a great idea, but if one ran a miner as a source of income, it’s a reasonable way to accomplish that.

  4. Is stayed at the Salisbury in November and never even noticed that ATM! Yet another reason to love this site!

  5. We stayed at the Salisbury in ’08! The ATM wasn’t there yet but I did visit the coin shop. I miss NYC!

  6. He may charge you $255 for 5g but I bet he will not buy it for that. You would be lucky to be offered $225 at any gold or coin dealer. Plus that is a premium over trade price.
    I would not buy it for “investment.” It is only good as a novelty unless you expect gold to go back up any time soon which is unlikely.

  7. There has been a gold machine in the hotel lobby of the Golden Nugget in Atlantic City for about a year.

    On several occasions I have seen people walk out of the casino and go up to the machine and buy some gold to take home with them, I presume, for a good story about their winning at a casino.

    You do have to scan a passport though in order to purchase… I guess it may have to do with money laundering?

  8. Funny how your story coin-insided with the NY Post story. About three people a day use it according to the article.

  9. This doesnt surprise me. 10,000 k-exchange centers are in contract to come to the states starting end of 2014. Click on my name to join forces while we dominate in the gold market.

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