SILVER SOARS

The arrival of Islamic militancy in Iran made life easier for Bunker Hunt, driving the white metal above $7 an ounce for the first time in history on Monday, February 5, 1979.¹ According to James Sinclair, head of a brokerage firm bearing his name: “Anxiety has been heightened by the weekend events in Iran, which promises to raise the price of oil and reduce American and European influence in the Mideast.”² The Ayatolah Khomeini, a white-bearded Muslim cleric wearing a black turban and flowing black robe, had arrived in Teheran from Paris on Thursday, February 1, two weeks after revolutionary