商业报道:伦敦黄金典当业生意兴隆（在线收听）

These are of course recessionary times and many of us don't have that much spare cash lying around. But if you are cash poor but gold rich, now buy me the time to cash in. We went down to a very busy pawnbroker to find out what happens to your gold when you bring it here.

Hi.(Hello.)

Nathan Finch is a council member for Britain's National Association of Pawnbrokers and he is also the boss here at Pickwick.

Had you been doing this five years ago, you would've probably got half the amount of money you will get today.

Jane Longhurst's getting 170 pounds or around 270 dollars for just under 30 grams of scrap gold.

They are broken bits that are sitting. You'd throw them in the bin. But if you can get a little bit of cashback on them. Then it goes towards my grandchildren.

So this is just what you brought in today.(Yeah.) Wow, business really is booming.(Yes, it is.) So how do you work out the value of that?

So we would take a file and gently scratch the surface.

What? If it's fake, it goes... it vanishes.

That's just the, that's just the beginning. Then you apply an alkaline solution to it and depending on the reaction of that solution, you will get a different reaction as to whether it's gold or not gold and a different reaction as to the carat. (Okay.) They don't quite stay in brown. And the lower the carat, the more that the brown staying is evident.

So now we have this bag, what would you do? Sell it onto the persons that are gonna melt it down?

Well, this bag is a process bars. And it is effectively then moved securely to a bullion dealer who would then melt it down. And it would be turned back into bars of gold as it once was.

And what should customers be careful of if they're wanting to sell their gold?

I think one of the most important thing is that where you're buying from someone who could be a member of a trade association, a trade body. I think they should be busy. It shows that if invented. If you just send your gold straight off in an envelope, you'll be pretty much in a difficult position as far as being able to up the price and barter. Well, if you are face to face, you can get a much fair price in my opinion for that gold.

We've probably spent about an hour inside that shop. And during that time, they had over a dozen customers, more than twice the amount they normally have. One business on the British high street that's doing pretty well right now.

Diana Magnay, CNN, Dartford, England.