Flashback - Hunt Brothers Corner Silver Market in 1979

"A billion dollars is not what it used to be." Inflation had destroyed their faith in the dollar, so early in 1979 they began putting even more of their wealth into a "harder" currency: silver. By late March they allegedly controlled almost two-thirds of the world's privately held supply of the shiny metal..."

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,920875,00.html